‘Vampire’ grave found in Polish construction site

Archaeologists believe they have found a vampire grave on a construction site in the south of Poland.

Skeletons were found with their heads removed and placed on their legs, indicating they had been subjected to an execution ritual designed to ensure the dead stayed dead.

An individual accused of being a vampire in Europe’s distant past faced a grim fate. Sometimes they would be decapitated, otherwise they might be hanged from a gibbet until decomposition resulted in the head separating from the body. In both cases the head was then laid on the legs of the victim in the hope that an inability to locate their head would hinder those intent on rising from the grave.

Historians say that the practice was common in the Slavic lands during the decades following the adoption of Christianity by pagan tribes.

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