Italian archaeologist from Italy Matteo Borrini put forward a theory of the origin of superstitions about vampires. According to the scientist, the ancient belief arose due to the fact that in those days people had a poor idea of how corpses decompose
Matteo Borrini in 2009 discovered the body of a vampire in a mass grave of plague victims in Venice. Rather, the skull of a woman with a mouth plugged with a brick was found. This is a common procedure used in the Middle Ages to get rid of a vampire.
The archaeologist conducted a thorough research to find out why the Venetians of the 16th century mistook a woman for a bloodsucker. Analyzes showed that the skull belonged to a woman of a very old age for that time, 60–70 years old. The woman ate mainly vegetables and bread, which indicates her belonging to the lower strata of society.
Borrini believes that the Venetian gravediggers, once again excavating a mass grave in order to add new corpses there, saw that one half-decayed corpse had a mouth covered in blood. The gravediggers, of course, immediately assumed that it was a vampire, broke off her fangs and stuffed a piece of brick into her mouth.
According to modern concepts, bleeding from the mouth and nose of a corpse is caused by the fact that the blood, having lost its cellular structure, becomes liquid and simply flows down. If the corpse is lying face down, which is very likely in mass graves, the blood is likely to leak from the mouth and nose.
From the stories of gravediggers (or marauders) who unearthed burials during the plague in Europe, the belief about vampires was born, the Italian archaeologist believes.