Mediaeval 'vampire' skull found near Venice

Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8 Mar 2009 | Nick Squires

[PotatoHeadMick]

The remains of a woman's skull with a rock thrust into its jaws is evidence of the mediaeval fear of vampires, Italian anthropologists have claimed. Scientists found the skull, with its mouth agape and a large slab of rock forced into its mouth, while excavating a mass grave dating from the Middle Ages on an island near Venice.

Female "vampires" were often blamed for spreading the plague epidemics through Europe, said Matteo Borrini of Florence University.

Wedging a rock or brick into the mouth of a suspected vampire was a way of preventing the person from feeding on the bodies of other plague victims and rising from the grave to attack the living, he told a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver last week.

[ZULU]

Back then there were no Certificates of Death or post-mortems. In some cases, unfortunate people passed into a coma, were declared dead, buried without embalming and later woke up and tried to escape only to be done in by grave diggers.

[Nikas777]

My subjects of interests are in history, militaria, religions/theologies, archeology,myths and legends and while I do not generally believe in the following subjects, for fun (and to maintain an open mind) I love reading about alternate/revisionist history (and by that I mean subjects like pre-Columbian transatlantic voyages, ancient batteries, etc), crypto-zoology, UFOs and other Fortean happenings.

Politics have lost their appeal for me so I will try to avoid that subject for the foreseeable future. But f you can place me on the SunkenCiv; list I would appreciate it or do I have to somehow subscribe to that myself on here?

Much appreciated.

[Nikas777]

Greetings, Mate.

My subjects of interests are in history, militaria, religions/theologies, archeology,myths and legends and while I do not generally believe in the following subjects, for fun (and to maintain an open mind) I love reading about alternate/revisionist history (and by that I mean subjects like pre-Columbian transatlantic voyages, ancient batteries, etc), crypto-zoology, UFOs and other Fortean happenings.

Politics have lost their appeal for me so I will try to avoid that subject for the foreseeable future. But f you can place me on the SunkenCiv; list I would appreciate it or do I have to somehow subscribe to that myself on here?

Much appreciated.

[Ramius]

10,000 years from now, archeologist will be studying the strange practice of placing massive globs of silicone in the female chest. “What could they have been warding off?” they’ll ask themselves.

They'll assume it was some kind of religious practice. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Welcome aboard Nikas777!

[Perdogg]

wlecome to FR