Inside ‘child vampire’ graveyard where victims were buried with knives across throats to ‘stop them coming back to life’
A GRAVEYARD of "child vampires" has been unearthed where victims were buried with padlocked feet and knives across their throats.
Archaeologists found a child skeleton on a dig at the 17th century cemetery in the Polish village of Pien - just a year after a "vampire woman" was found at the same site.
Villagers made sure to bury the child face-down so that that if they awoke, they would bite the ground rather than suck the blood from the people above them, reports.
The "little vampire" - believed to be around six years old - also had a foot held in a padlock in a bid to stop it getting out of the grave.
Locals went one step further as after burying the corpse with the top half of its body stolen and presumably destroyed.
Archaeologists believe they have found the first evidence for a child “revenant” - a corpse feared by locals to be at risk of reanimation.
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The finding has put Pien back into the history spotlight this week, as other bodies were dug up with "anti-revenant" protection methods.
Myths surrounding vampires date back to as early as the 11th century in eastern Europe - and it is not uncommon for skeletons bearing the marks of these superstitions to be unearthed.
The child skeleton was "clearly greatly feared", said Dariusz Poliński, from Nicolaus Copernicus University and leader of the dig.
“The reason for such a brutal and disgusting burial is unknown,” he explained.
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But he thinks the partial exhumation suggests that at some point after death the child had been accused of harming the living.
"Maybe the child was found guilty of someone’s death, an accident, or even just creating worse living conditions in general," Poliński said.
Just a few feet away from the "little vampire", a "female vampire" skeleton was found with a blade pinned across her throat.
Similarly to the child, the woman had a padlocked toe to "prevent her returning from the dead".
Researchers found the woman had a silk cap on her head - indicating a high social status - and a protruding tooth.
Poliński said the form of burial was unusual.
He told the : "Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone.
"The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured."
He said the padlocked big toe on the left foot strengthened the theory she was considered a vampire at the time of her death and likely symbolised "the impossibility of returning".
In the 11th century, residents in Eastern Europe started becoming fearful of vampires - believing people who died would claw their way out of graves.
And by the 17th century, unusual burial practices became common across Poland after an apparent "outbreak" of vampires.
Poliński said alleged vampires were violently executed across Eastern Europe at the time.
People who died in untimely ways - such as by suicide - would often have been suspected of vampirism - and their bodies would have been mutilated to stop them ";rising from the dead".
In 2015, archaeologists in the village of Drewsko 130 miles away reportedly found five skeletons buried in a similar way at a 400-year-old cemetery.
Sickles were found pinned against the throats of a man and a woman, while an older woman was discovered with a sickle across her hips.
The researchers said at the time: "When placed in burials they were a guarantee that the deceased remained in their graves and therefore could not harm the living, but they may also have served to protect the dead from evil forces.
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"According to folk wisdom, a sickle protected women in labour, children and the dead against evil spirits.
"It also had a role in rituals designed to counter black magic and witchcraft."
