The 16th-century woman was discovered among medieval plague victims in 2006. Her jaw had been forced open by a brick—an exorcism technique used on suspected vampires in Europe at the time.
The discovery marked the first time archaeological remains had been interpreted as those of an alleged vampire, project leader Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist at the University of Florence in Italy, said when the skull was first revealed in March 2009.
Borrini found the vampire skull while digging up mass graves on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo.
Scholars trace the myth that humans rise from the dead and suck the blood of others to medieval ignorance about how diseases spread and bodies decompose.
For instance, as the human stomach decays, it releases a dark "purge fluid." This bloodlike liquid can flow freely from a corpse's nose and mouth.
When mass graves were re-opened during epidemics to deposit fresh corpses, the Italian diggers often encountered older, bloated bodies with purge fluid seeping out of their mouths — conditions that scientists now know result from the buildup of gases in decomposing organs. In earlier times, however, this was regarded as a sign that the corpses were drinking the blood of others.
In addition, the fluid sometimes moistened the burial shroud near the corpse's mouth so that the cloth sagged into the jaw. This could create tears in the cloth that made it seem as if the corpse had been chewing on its shroud.
Vampires were thought by some to be the causes of plagues, and the superstition took root that shroud-chewing was the "magical way" that vampires infected people, Borrini said.
Inserting objects—such as bricks and stones—into the mouths of alleged vampires was thought to halt the spread of disease.
This skull with a mouthful of brick, he said, is "evidence of exorcism against a vampire."
Medieval Italians thought that the only known way to kill the undead was to stick a brick in their mouths so that they would starve.
Thursday 14 February 2013
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/37981373/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.UR0ikEH3TUI
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100226-vampires-venice-plague-skull-witches/
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