A 17th-century cemetery in Pień, Poland, reveals numerous atypical burials suggesting societal rejection and possible anti-vampire practices.
Archaeological Research in Pień
A team led by Professor Dariusz Poliński of the Nicolaus Copernicus University has been excavating an archaeological site in Pień, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, for over 20 years. The 17th-century cemetery is believed to be Protestant, but a significant number of atypical burials have drawn particular attention.
Researchers have uncovered a total of 101 burials, with at least a dozen classified as atypical, and potentially more under investigation. Four additional graves – containing fetuses, newborns, and adolescents aged 12-15 – were discovered in the latest season.
Disease and Superstition
The most well-known burial from Pień is that of “Zosia,” a young woman buried with a sickle around her neck and a padlock on her left big toe. A recent interdisciplinary reconstruction of her face revealed she suffered from an angioma, a tumor in the sternum that could have caused pain and a visible chest lump.
Burials Reflecting Social Exclusion
Another atypical grave contained the remains of a woman aged 30-50, with a stone resting on her left hand and smaller stones surrounding her left side. Anthropological analysis indicated she suffered from tertiary syphilis, a late-stage disease that evoked fear and exclusion in past societies.
Anti-Vampire Practices
A burial of a woman around 60 years old featured field stones pressed around her skull, a practice associated with anti-vampire rituals intended to prevent the deceased from rising and returning to the village. Scientists identified a clear trace of an aneurysm on the inner surface of her right temporal bone.
Symptoms of this condition, such as severe pain and pressure, could have been interpreted as madness or neurological changes, and were often attributed to demonic possession.
Unusual Burial Arrangements
An intriguing burial contained a young man and a child of approximately two years old. The child was placed on the man’s lower legs with arms outstretched, and stones were found between the man’s thighs, near the child’s head, under the child’s knees, and at the pubic bone.
Fear of the Unknown
Those who caused unease among residents were buried with sickles around their necks, weighed down with stones, or padlocked. Some were buried face down, reflecting a fear that they would rise from the grave and harm the community.
Context of the 17th Century
These practices were attempts to find someone to blame for hardships like death, famine, and epidemics. The 17th century was a difficult period marked by a harsh climate, the “Little Ice Age,” and frequent famines.
Europe also experienced numerous wars, including the Thirty Years’ War and the Swedish Deluge, and was ravaged by epidemics. Lacking understanding of disease causes, people sought ways to protect themselves and assigned blame.