Monday, March 23, 2009

It Is Not A "Twilight" Vampire!


The idea of vampires has persisted for centuries.? Do they really exist? If so are not likely to be romanticized as in popular American culture.

An interesting historical find recently:
" 'Vampire' skull discovered in Italy

March 10: Officials uncover the body of a woman buried with a brick in her mouth, a common practice for those believed to be vampires in the middle ages. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
ROME - An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws — evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire.

The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual. It suggests the legend of the mythical bloodsucking creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said.

The well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576."Article
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29681670/

5 comments:

Athena's Armoury said...

I didn't know that about the bricks. Cool.

Pam said...

Wow...I remember when they found this pit. I'm a plague buff (yeah yeah it's weird...)I've always wondered if there were zombie stories related to it, but I think this answers that. Zombies, as far as I've read, came from S America. Bit fascinated by Vlad the Impaler as well.

LiPeony said...

Yikes never heard of that but I have heard of many massive graves and the way they be executing people because they thought they were this creature or that.

Sue said...

I read about this in the
newspaper - fascinating
historical lore.

Anonymous said...

I saw that article - how cool is that!?