'Vampire graves' uncovered in Poland

01 December 2014 - 12:56 By Times LIVE
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About 200 years ago six people were buried as potential 'vampires' in a Polish graveyard - surprising scientists with the measures people took to keep the dead buried.

"The rusty red colour began to darken around the pelvis in a distinct crescent-moon shape," Amy Scott of the University of Manitoba recalled, describing one skeleton via email according to USA Today.

They also found a 'vampire' with a sickle curving around her abdomen, and a large rock on its neck.

The six 'vampires' weren't sparkly gentlemen, one was a toothless middle aged woman, another a child of unknown sex, and one was a teenager with a crown of braids still atop her head.

The six bodies weren't suffering diseases or trauma, and their teeth suggest they grew up in the area - so why were they singled out?

Researchers believe they may have flouted society's rules, but caution that this isn't absolutely certain.

"Do I actually believe that the dead come back? No," study co-author Tracy Betsinger of SUNY College at Oneonta. But the villagers near the vampires' cemetery "very much believed in the reality of vampires. … (The graves) tell you how seriously this was taken."

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