Real Vampire Dug Up In Italy

In March of 2009, the Associated Press reported that a woman’s remains were dug up in Venice, Italy. This woman was believed to be a vampire.

What made archaeologists question the origins of these 16th century remains was that there was a brick wedged in between her jaws. Probably not what one may have expected to find on a vampire, but 16th century people had good reason for this. The belief in vampires came when epidemics hit, and graves were reopened to bury the corpses of people who had just died.

 Vampire Skull With Brick In Mouth

When people reopened these graves, what they saw shocked them. They would come across older bodies that had been buried and the bodies were swollen and had blood seeping from the sides of the mouth. The shroud, or winding sheet that was used to wrap the dead body, also had a hole in it, causing the vampires or “shroud-eaters” to appear as if they were alive and feasting.

People were disturbed by these visions and insisted that the only reason for why these dead bodies looked nourished was because they were vampires. In addition, people believed that vampires also fed on their shrouds and would cast spells in order to cause widespread plague, giving them more blood to feast on. The only way to stop the vampire from sucking blood was to stick a brick in its mouth so that it wouldn’t be able to feast and would instead starve to death.

So while people believed in vampires long ago, they weren’t the same image of bloodsucking, white fanged vampires that we in today’s society. Instead, these beliefs were based on the lack of knowledge people had of what happened to the body after death. We now know that when a person dies, the body fills up with gases, causing it to look bloated. The organs will decay over time, causing fluid to be excreted from the body, which was the blood the 16th century gravediggers saw. Furthermore, the bacteria from the decomposing body would eat away at the shrouds.

People also feared the widespread plagues that would kill millions of men, women and children. In order to explain these events during the Middle Ages, people would attribute them to superstitious beliefs, such as those of vampires that brought on sickness and death to add to their bloodsucking pleasure.

So what about the woman who was found buried? Archaeologists believed that she died around the age of 60 during one of the many plagues. When her grave was stumbled upon one day, a brick was shoved in her mouth because she was believed to be a vampire. Most commonly, gravediggers or priests were the ones to carry out these actions and once completed, more bodies could be laid to rest in the same spot.