Staked Vampire Skeletons Found!

Team Jacob; fall back.  Here comes a whole lotta vampire awesomeness…

Archaeologists in the Black Sea town of Sozopol recently exhumed two 700 year old skeletons, each bearing an iron stake driven completely through its chest and into the ground.  According to Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the Bulgarian National Museum of History,  this pinning of corpses was a common practice of superstitious villages throughout the region, occurring even as recently as the early 20th century.  Upon death, people outside of the common village lifestyle (loners and drifters, as well as questionable characters like alcoholics and criminals) were largely subject to the collective suspicion of their peers.  If deemed threatening, the heart would be staked to the ground to prevent the deceased from rising from the grave and feasting on the blood of the living.  Sometimes, heavy stones were also used to impede the suspected vampire’s presumed, nocturnal return.

Photograph: National History Museum of Bulgaria

From Vlad Dracula and Elizabeth Báthory to the nearly 100 discovered vampire burial sites in Bulgaria alone, it’s safe to say that undead bloodsuckers play a prominent role in the regional history and folklore of Eastern Europe.

So, are the bones above those of actual vampires?  Who’s to say?  Are there actual vampires?  Are you one of them?  So many questions, so few answers…

A few super cool vampire books (just because):

                

Jon : CLP Carrick