Her remains, dating back to the 17th century, were unearthed along with a sickle on her neck and a triangular lock on her toe.
‘Those items were to prevent the female from rising from the dead,’ a member of the team said.
Such a burial ritual, so far known only from folk tales, has now found confirmation in the woman’s corpse.
The female was wearing a silk cap woven with silver and gold threads, which symbolises the high social status of the owner.
More about the woman’s appearance and medical history will be known after a lab examination of the cadaver.
Suspicions of being a ‘vampire’
The superstitious people of the 17th century would consider a hairless body or a unibrow to be the hallmarks of the supernatural creature. The woman found near Bydgoszcz has been identified to have had a protruding tooth, which might have been enough to decide her fate.
The 17th century and more so the 18th century is infamous for witch- and vampire-hunts. In Eastern Europe, the fear of the creatures was so widespread that not rarely did state officials participate in hunting women suspected of being a Striga, a female vampire in Slavic mythology.
(pjm)
Source: Nauka w Polsce, Gazeta Wyborcza