Researchers announced the remains of a "vampire" have been uncovered by archaeologists at a cemetery in Poland, according to CBS News.
The Polish researchers came across the remains of a woman with a sickle around her neck and a triangular padlock on her foot at a gravesite in the village of Pień. The farming tool, according to ancient beliefs, was supposed to prevent a deceased person thought to be a vampire from returning from the dead.
The research team, led by Professor Dariusz Polinski of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, made the discovery in late August.
Magdalena Zagrodzka, who represented the research team during a an interview with the Polish Press Agency PAP, said the human remains also had a silk headdress, which was woven with gold or silver thread.
While the padlock and sickle are linked to 17th-century superstitions, Zagrodzka said the cap is evidence of the high social status of the deceased.
Zagrodzka said that the sickle and padlock "may have protected against the return of the deceased, which was probably feared. In this context, these practices can be considered so-called anti-vampiric."
The farming tool was placed with the blade on the neck. It was believed that such an arrangement would cause the head to be cut if the deceased tried to "get up."
This type of practice became common throughout Poland in the 17th century, as a response to a reported vampire epidemic. Polanski said that in addition to practices with a sickle, sometimes corpses were burned, destroyed with rocks or had their heads and legs cut off.
In an interview with CBS News, Polinski said the find left him speechless.
"Such a discovery, especially here in Poland, is astonishing, especially now — centuries later," he said. "Pure astonishment."
This is not the first such discovery in the country. Archaeologists led by Lesley Gregoricka of the University of South Alabama in the United States found six so-called "vampire skeletons" at a cemetery in northwest Poland in 2014.
