A strange skeleton has been unearthed in the UK. In a new report, the researchers say the skeleton they found belonged to a man who lived around 550. He was buried in the ancient city of Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Metal stakes were driven into his shoulders, heart and ankles.
It is believed that such measures were taken during burial so that the deceased did not rise from the dead and did not disturb the living. Today it is one of the few such burials found in the UK.
Previously, a similar vampire skeleton was found by archaeologist Charles Daniels in 1959.
Details of that discovery are detailed in a new report by archaeologist Matthew Beresford. Beresford said that when Daniels found the skeleton, he jokingly checked to see if it had fangs. The report says: "The discovered skeleton is a classic image of a dangerous corpse (better known today as a vampire), into whose body the inhabitants of the city drove stakes to prevent him from rising from his grave, and this is confirmed by all records of that period."
Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, delinquents were buried face down in wetlands, headless. This is how thieves, murderers and traitors were buried.
Beresford believes that the remains still rest in the place where Daniels discovered them, because back in 1959, archaeologists were unable to get the body out of the ground.
John Locke, an expert in Southwell archeology, says that the remains they found are one of the few such burials that can be found in the UK: “People were convinced that this man was dangerous and they were afraid of his return from the next world. We would very much like to know who this person was and why the locals were so afraid of him,”he added.
The discovery was made five months after archaeologists found the remains of a "vampire" in central Bulgaria. The skeleton was chained to the ground with iron shackles, and amber lay at its head.
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According to experts, the skeleton is about 200 years old. It was a 30-year-old man whose body was ritualized to prevent him from being raised from the dead.
