This ‘anti-vampiric’ grave was double guarded against the undead 

Someone in 17th-century Poland really did not want one particular girl to rise from the dead.

In 2022, archaeologists unearthed an unsettling grave in Pień, part of north-central Poland. The young woman — who researchers call Zosia — had been buried in a cemetery there, with the jagged blade of a sickle hooked over her throat. Zosia also wore an odd triangular padlock on the big toe of her left foot. 

“The placement of the sickle and the padlock suggests that the purpose of these practices was to protect the living from Zosia after her death,” says Dariusz Poliński. This included, “without a doubt, preventing her from rising from the grave.”

Poliński is an archaeologist at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. He led the excavation of Zosia’s final resting place. His team has now done a large set of analyses on the grave to piece together details of Zosia’s life and burial.

The group shared its findings in the October issue of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Stay dead!

Poliński’s group first looked at other tombs in Europe where sickles and padlocks had been found. They also considered historical beliefs about such items. Both types of artifacts seem to have been used to shield the living from the dead, they found. But Zosia’s grave is the first known to have used both approaches.

Zosia’s skeleton suggests she was 17 to 19 years old when she died. Based on how her leg bones lay, the padlock was likely latched on her toe when she was first buried. This hints that someone suspected Zosia would try to rise from her grave right away.

On top of that, mixed-up soil and the odd angle of Zosia’s left arm suggest that someone later dug up her tomb. They likely did this to place the sickle over her throat, the researchers say. Someone wanted to be extra sure Zosia wouldn’t resurrect.

A close look at Zosia’s skull revealed greenish stains. The marks could have come from some copper object — or objects — being shoved in her mouth or nose. “This may have [been] an additional protective measure,” Poliński says. In Polish folklore, copper was thought to help ward off vampiric demons, known as strzygi.

Lauren Hosek has seen strange graves. But she doesn’t know if she’s seen stranger than this. A bioarchaeologist, she works at the University of Colorado Boulder and did not take part in this research.

A sickle across the neck is very striking, says Hosek. That, paired with the padlock as a restraint, offers a strong argument that this young woman was feared after her death.

Graves designed to fend off evil spirits are sometimes known as “anti-vampiric.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean that people in the 17th century thought Zosia was out for blood, Hosek cautions.

Today, we think of vampires as blood-sucking monsters associated with garlic and bats and capes. In this historical context, a vampire simply refers to some sort of harmful undead being.

Why was Zosia so feared?

To explain how a teen girl could have earned such anti-vampiric treatment, Poliński’s team analyzed the chemicals in her skeleton and accessories.

For instance, the team looked at the types — or isotopes — of strontium and oxygen atoms in her teeth. Dental isotopes hold clues about where someone lived during their childhood. Zosia’s show that she likely grew up near Pień. Her DNA, however, hints that her mother’s family might have come from Scandinavia.

Remnants of a silk cap on Zosia’s head contained threads of pure silver and gold. To be laid to rest in such fancy attire, the researchers think she must have been a wealthy woman of high social status.

Having so much information about someone entombed in an odd burial is rare, says Sandra Garvie-Lok. By knowing some details of Zosia’s life, this bioarchaeologist says, “we can rule out some commonly suggested explanations for this kind of [burial] treatment.” Garvie-Lok works at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Like Hosek, she’s studied peculiar graves, but not this one.

Historical records have shown that someone might be singled out for a strange burial because they were an outsider or had a hard life, Garvie-Lok notes. But if Zosia was a noblewoman who grew up near Pień, then she may not neatly tick either of those boxes.

Violent or weird circumstances around her death might also account for Zosia’s strange burial. But there are no obvious marks of injury or illness on her skeleton. “We’re still looking at the DNA” for insights into how she died, says Tomasz Grzybowski. He’s a forensic geneticist at Nicolaus Copernicus University and coauthor of the new study.

In creepy company

The Pień cemetery is riddled with other eerie burials.

One boy there was buried face-down with a triangular padlock on his right foot. “Sometime later, the grave was reopened and most of his remains were removed,” Poliński says. This left “only the lower legs and feet in place, together with the padlock.”

Even spookier, there are no written references to this graveyard. It doesn’t appear on any maps. And because it was set away from the village, it may have been far from any church or chapel. All this points to the cemetery being specifically for people who had been rejected by society — and perhaps feared after their deaths.

If so, Garvie-Lok says, “this would make Pień a very unusual site that we could learn a lot from.”