A strange burial was found in 2009 on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo, located in the Venetian lagoon, 3 km northeast of the city.
Italian archaeologist Matteo Borrini unearthed the mass grave of victims of the plague, which claimed many lives in the 16th century. A female skull was found in the grave, whose mouth was plugged with a brick. According to Borrini, this was one of the traditional rituals used in Europe during the Middle Ages to keep a vampire in the ground.
In those days, people believed in the existence of vampires and believed that it was they who contributed to the spread of the plague epidemic. It was believed that vampires belonged exclusively to noble families and royal families, but when they scoured in search of next victims, they dressed in rags like beggar tramps and disappeared into the crowd. As it was written in ancient medical and religious texts, vampires spread the plague in order to suck the last drops of blood from the corpses in the event of another “death” until they gain enough strength to return to their usual “life”.
Studies have shown that the skull belonged to a woman 60-70 years old, which is a very respectable age for the 16th century, when the average life expectancy was about 40 years.
Experts suggest that the gravediggers, having once again excavated a mass grave in order to dump new bodies there, noticed that the mouth of the half-decayed corpse was stained with blood. In addition, in the mouth of the deceased, there was probably a piece of shroud, as if she was gnawing it. Suspecting the continuation of life after death, the Venetians hammered a brick into her mouth so that she could not close her jaws and gnaw on the shroud, which, according to medieval opinion, allowed the dead to find eternal peace.
Promotional video:
Meanwhile, the bleeding from the mouth and nose of the deceased has a medical explanation: during decomposition, the blood loses its cellular structures and becomes more liquid, flowing down under the influence of gravity. In sloppy mass graves, the head of the corpse is often at the bottom and blood can leak out of the mouth and nose. The shroud could simply stick and tear. All this together and could create the impression that the deceased comes to life at night.
Whether the scientists' guesses are true, or whether these statements were made to diminish public attention after an accidental leak of information, is not yet clear, but to date, the storage locations of the remains and the mysterious skull are unknown.