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| June 6, 2012 | Vampire skeletons discovered by archaeologists prove legends of pagan rites across the Balkans | |
Melbourne: Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed two skeletons
from the Middle Ages, which were pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep
them from turning into vampires, the head of the history museum said on Wednesday.
Pagans believed that people who were considered bad during their lifetime might
turn into vampires after death unless stabbed in the chest with an iron or wooden
rod before being buried. “These two skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice
which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th
century,” News.co.au quoted national history museum chief Bozhidar Dimitrov as
saying after the recent find in the Black Sea town of Sozopol. The historian explained
that the people also believed the rod would also pin the dead into their graves
and prevent them from leaving at midnight and terrorizing the living. The practice
was common, Dimitrov added, saying that some 100 similar burials already had been
found in Bulgaria. Archaeologist Petar Balabanov, who in 2004 unearthed six nailed-down
skeletons at a site near the eastern town of Debelt, said that the pagan rite
was also practiced in neighbouring Serbia and other Balkan countries. Vampire
legends are widespread across the Balkans. The most famous of them all is that
of Romanian Count Vlad the Impaler, known as Dracula, who staked his war enemies
and drank their blood.
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