In 2022, when archaeologists uncovered the grave of a young woman buried in 17th-century Pień, Poland, they were confronted with a bizarre scene. Hanging from the big toe of her left foot was an iron padlock. Across her neck lay a large sickle, its blade positioned directly toward her throat.
The strange arrangement suggested that whoever buried her may have feared that, like the vampires of European folklore, she might somehow rise from the grave.
In the four years since “Grave 75” was discovered, scientists have subjected the young woman’s remains, clothing, grave, and the mysterious objects buried with her to an unusually extensive forensic investigation involving ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating, isotope chemistry, X-ray imaging, and microscopic analysis.
Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the findings are beginning to reveal who the mysterious woman was. She was only around 17 to 19 years old when she died, appears to have come from a wealthy or high-status family, and probably spent her childhood in the surrounding region.
Most strikingly, the evidence suggests that local fears surrounding the young woman may have grown after she was already buried.
Researchers believe the padlock was placed on her toe during the first burial. Sometime later, the grave was apparently reopened and the sickle positioned across her neck as an additional safeguard.
The circumstances surrounding the young woman’s death, and why the community apparently feared her enough to take such extraordinary precautions against her trying to return to the land of the living, remain a mystery.
“The burial, uncovered and later disturbed, is distinguished by the co-occurrence of a sickle and a padlock within a single grave, a combination not previously reported in the published archaeological literature,” researchers write. “Ongoing palaeopathological research may shed new light on the cause of death of this young female, which remains a mystery today.”
The grave represents what archaeologists describe as an “anti-demonic” or “anti-vampiric” burial. However, the researchers caution that applying the familiar label of “vampire” to such graves can be misleading.
Although versions of the term vampire can be traced as far back as the Middle Ages, it did not become widespread across Europe until around the 18th century. Earlier Slavic cultures used terms including upiór and strzyga to describe people who, after death, were believed capable of becoming dangerous supernatural beings that could threaten the living.
Researchers have identified several hundred suspected anti-vampire burials dating from the post-medieval period onward across Central and Southeastern Europe.
“Grave 75” was discovered at a cemetery in Pień overlooking the Vistula Valley, where archaeologists have uncovered more than 100 post-medieval graves. Researchers believe the cemetery may have served a Protestant community, and its unusual location away from the village raises the possibility that it was also used to bury people considered social outsiders. Several dozen graves contain unusual features, including deliberately placed stones, coins, sickles, and padlocks.
Sickles and padlocks have both been associated with old European burial practices intended to prevent potentially dangerous dead from returning to harm the living. But finding the two together in one “vampire grave” was unprecedented. No previously published archaeological account had documented a burial containing both a sickle and a padlock.
The woman lay on her back with her legs extended. Around her neck was a 14-inch-long serrated sickle, positioned with its cutting edge toward her throat. Hanging from the big toe of her left foot was a triangular iron padlock. Archaeologists also recovered fragments of an elaborate textile near her skull.
Microscopic analysis showed the material was silk decorated with metal threads made from silver and gilded silver. Such expensive trimmings were generally associated with aristocrats, nobility, and wealthy townspeople. Researchers, therefore, conclude that the teenager likely came from a relatively high social class, making her apparent treatment after death particularly unusual.
Analysis of her skeleton offered few indications about how she died. Researchers estimated that she stood roughly 5 feet 5 inches tall and found no evidence of fatal trauma or skeletal disease that might explain her death. Without any surviving soft tissue, however, determining a definitive cause of death may be impossible.
DNA confirmed the remains belonged to a female and placed her mitochondrial lineage within haplogroup J1c2c1, a lineage found particularly among ancient and modern Scandinavian populations.
Isotope measurements suggest she probably spent her childhood around Pień. One possibility is that she belonged to a family with more distant Scandinavian ancestry, although the researchers caution that genetics and isotopes cannot establish geographic origin with certainty.
More intriguing is evidence that the precautions surrounding her body were not all taken at the same time.
The padlock appears to have been attached when she was originally buried. The sickle may have come later.
Disturbed soil around the vampire grave suggests somebody subsequently reopened it. Because the skeleton remained articulated, researchers believe that, if it were reopened, it probably happened before the body had completely decomposed. At that point, someone may have placed or driven the sickle across her neck as an additional safeguard.
That raises a disturbing possibility that the community already regarded the young woman as potentially dangerous when she died. Yet, for unknown reasons, they became even more frightened of her after her burial.
Historical traditions provide some context. In parts of Poland, a sickle placed across the throat was believed to prevent a strzyga from returning. Birch, one possible wood identified in the sickle’s deteriorated handle, was itself associated with protection against demons and witchcraft.
There may have even been yet another precaution. Extensive green discoloration inside the skull suggests that an object containing copper could have been placed in her mouth. Chemical analysis could not determine what it was, although researchers say it was unlikely to be a coin. Objects inserted into the mouths of suspected revenants are known from other “anti-vampiric” burials.
None of this means the woman was literally considered a “vampire” in the modern Dracula sense. Instead, the evidence points toward a wider fear that certain dead people could return or somehow cause harm.
Why this particular teenager inspired such fear is still a mystery. Researchers suggest her ancestry, young age, an unusual or socially troubling death, disease, or behavior during life could all have contributed.
In periods of epidemic, famine, and other disasters, communities sometimes blamed supposedly dangerous dead people for otherwise inexplicable misfortune. Researchers stress that these explanations remain hypotheses, not proof of what her contemporaries believed.
For now, the only thing that seems certain is that the local community feared this young woman enough to secure her body not only once, but returned to her grave to secure it again.
“Grave 75, as well as other non-normative graves in the cemetery in Pien, demonstrate practices of a protective/anti-demonic nature,” researchers write. “[They] vividly illustrate superstitions, including the tendency to blame the deceased for misfortunes and the fear of the unknown in the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.”
The recent study, “A unique, non-normative burial of a young adult female from a 17th-century cemetery in Pień, north-central Poland. A multidisciplinary approach,” appeared in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com