13th-century child graves — with anti-vampire measures — found in Poland. See them
Long before our understanding of disease, people of medieval eastern Europe leaned on the supernatural to explain odd human behavior.
It led to the creation of the vampire myth as diseases like porphyria caused sensitivity to light, tuberculosis caused weight loss, pellagra caused thinning of the skin and rabies caused biting and overall repulsion to light or strong smells like garlic, according to Britannica.
Now, archaeologists in Poland have discovered the graves of two 13th-century children, one of which that may have been feared as a member of the blood-sucking undead.
During renovations of a fence along the former Uniate bishop’s gardens on Chełmska Mountain in Chełm, workers started to pull tree roots from the ground, according to a Sept. 13 news release from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Under the roots, archaeologists found human remains, and based on their size, they belonged to children, according to a Sept. 12 Facebook post from the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Chełm.
There was no record of any previous graveyard or cemetery along that wall, officials said, but that wasn’t the only strange part of the burials.
One of the children had been decapitated before their burial, officials said. The child’s head was then buried in the same grave face down, opposite the rest of the body.
Whoever buried the child then put stones on their chest, archaeologists said, a practice that was meant to prevent the body from being able to leave the grave if it came back to life.
The grave likely would’ve been marked by two posts, matching the style of other anti-vampire graves found in the past, officials said.
Both graves were dated to the 13th century, or the early Middle Ages, archaeologists said.
Prince Daniel Romanowicz built a royal residence, including a palace, tower and church, on the site in the 13th century, officials said. Archaeologists have excavated the site for more than a century as Orthodox, Uniate and Catholic churches have all built worship spaces on the mountain. A sanctuary for the Virgin Mary currently resides on the property, officials said.
Since the children were buried without coffins or items, they may have been one-off graves, officials said, but they also can’t rule out the possibility of more human remains being discovered in the area. Excavations at the site will continue.
Officials said the bones would be analyzed but did not suggest a possible cause of death for the children.
Chełm is a city in Lublin Province in eastern Poland, near the borders with Ukraine and Belarus.
Google Translate and Facebook Translate were used to translate the news release and Facebook post from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Chełm, respectively.
This story was originally published September 13, 2024 at 11:52 AM with the headline "13th-century child graves — with anti-vampire measures — found in Poland. See them."
