'Vampire graves' uncovered in Poland
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."