I never expected to ask my interviewee the following question: were you very surprised when you discovered the remains of a 17th-century "vampire" in the village of Pień? When conducting archaeological research, one always hopes for a significant discovery. It might be something merely interesting, or it might be something truly unique and meaningful for science. My research team and I had already conducted investigations at this cemetery in previous years and had uncovered unusual burial practices, such as a padlock in a child's grave. It was the same kind of padlock as the one we found now on the toe of the 20-year-old woman you’re asking about. However, when uncovering the grave, we first saw something else. A sickle!
Placed right by her neck, with the blade facing down. If the deceased had tried to rise from the dead, it would have cut off her head? That was the idea. The combination of these two items—a padlock and a sickle—is astonishing! It's the only find of its kind in Poland, and possibly even in Europe.
We also found another very interesting item in the grave: the woman had something on her head, the remnants of which were shimmering in the sunlight. It was likely a cap made of silk with gold or gilded threads, which specialized analyses will confirm. The presence of this artifact indicates that we are definitely not dealing with the remains of someone from the lower social strata.
So, we’re talking about a "vampire" from the upper class. The purpose of placing the sickle by her neck is clear, but what about the padlock? Symbolically, a padlock serves to close off a period or event. I mentioned the padlock found in a child’s grave. At that time, child mortality was very high, but it was always a tragedy. Placing a padlock in the grave was meant to symbolically close that chapter, so that no more children would die. In the child’s grave, the padlock was placed by their feet. The woman had it hung on her toe. The idea was likely to keep her from rising from the grave, harming the living, or communicating with the world of the dead.
We had discovered sickles before, for example at the cemetery in Drawsko, and they were found in different places: on the abdomen or lying next to the body. In our case, the sickle was placed right by the neck with the blade down, making the purpose unmistakable. No one can claim it’s just an attribute of a farmer. The sickle and padlock were placed in the grave to keep the deceased from rising.
Łukasz Kozak, author of the book "Upiór. Historia naturalna" (Ghoul. A Natural History), argues that even in the following century, belief in ghouls was widespread, from bishops to peasants.
There is no doubt that people at that time believed in demonic beings. The concept of a "vampire" is relatively new.
Back then, they feared ghouls or strzygi. These were beings believed to return from the afterlife to harm the living. Some could even use black magic! We’re in the 17th century, during the Counter-Reformation, when witch hunts were ongoing. Historical records from places like Fordon, where witch trials were held, indicate that accusations could arise from as little as a suspicious glance or a harsh word, leading to an accusation: "She must be a witch!"
But the woman whose grave you found probably wasn’t a witch? In my opinion, no. If she had been considered a practitioner of witchcraft and thus in conflict with the law, she would have been judged and possibly burned. Those executed under the law, if buried at all, were usually buried carelessly, often at execution sites, such as near a gallows. But this woman was buried according to ritual; her body was carefully laid to rest, with her head facing west.
Yet, for some reason, they thought she might rise from the dead and feared it. Why? Because of her rather prominent teeth? Photos of the woman’s teeth have circulated in the media, but her dentition wasn’t atypical. The alveolus deteriorated, possibly due to inflammation, causing it to collapse, which is why the incisor is so prominently displayed in the photos.
We don’t know if her teeth were the issue, but we do know that if someone was accused of "vampirism" by their community, it was because they were different in some way.
Like how? How would you recognize a ghoul? It didn’t necessarily have to be unusual physical traits. It could have been irrational behavior.
Could the person have had a mental illness and, for example, talked about seeing the dead? Certainly. Or there could have been cases of catalepsy, a condition involving muscle stiffness combined with an immobile posture, limb position, and neck curvature, sometimes resembling the symptoms of death. In such cases, in the 17th century, people might have assumed death had occurred, only to later realize the person was still alive. So, when they did actually die, there was fear of what would happen if they returned.
But when I talk about unusual behavior, I don’t just mean symptoms of illness. It could have been someone who had more knowledge than the rest of the community and was involved in practices like healing.
A herbalist? For example. And when there was a special need, people would go to them for a cure or even, conversely, for poison. And after their death, it was believed that it was better to be safe and prevent their return to the living.
Someone accused of being a ghoul could have also had a different ethnic background. Any form of otherness always caused at least a reservation within a given social group. Such a person was often marginalized, and after death, precautions were taken—just in case.
After all, there were cases where a person died, and then someone claimed to have seen them later! They would usually appear at night. And then bad things would happen. At that point, the villagers would come to the cemetery and open the grave...
Would they exhume the "vampire" graves? Exactly. This was done in a very specific way, likely following the advice of an experienced and respected person within the community. Various measures were taken: coffins were secured with bands, the deceased was laid face down, and sometimes the head was cut off.
However, there are no signs of exhumation in our discovery.
The vampire portrayed in 20th-century pop culture had to be killed, otherwise, they would bite, drink blood, and turn innocent people into similar vampires. Did this woman die a natural death, or did the community help her leave this world? Maybe she was poisoned? We are investigating an interesting clue: there are two discolorations on her palate that look suspicious. Most of the palate has a greenish tint, but near the molars, the color is brownish. Something was in her mouth, but we don’t yet know what.
A CT scan of the skeleton has already been done, and we will examine the bone remains and DNA, which will allow us to determine if and what diseases she suffered from.
We don’t know yet if she could have been poisoned. It’s unlikely that a coin or stone was placed in her mouth, even though we observed such practices at the cemetery we are studying, such as graves containing the remains of children with a coin in their mouth.
Why? If such a person were to wake up and try to bite, they would first bite that object. Finding a coin in the deceased’s mouth is evidence that the community believed in the existence of vampiric beings—like strzygi or ghouls—that bite to drink blood.
Where did the concept of a vampire come from? This is a question related to psychology. In every society, there are people who have seen something others haven’t: witches, devils, aliens. Even today, you’ll find people who swear they were abducted by UFOs and had experiments performed on them.
When something bad happens, people always try to find someone to blame. Why are animals dying? Why is there no harvest? There always had to be a scapegoat.
But why a vampire? Where did the idea that people rise from their graves come from? That, in itself, is not unusual. Belief in an afterlife was widespread across the world. The people of Haiti still believe in living corpses, or zombies. In Christianity, we have the concept of the immortality of the soul, and in Buddhism, for example, reincarnation, but it’s still the belief that a person doesn’t die forever. In Polish cemeteries in the 18th and even 19th centuries, people honored the dead with customs like dziady, which were gatherings combined with a feast. Such practices were strictly punished by the Church, yet they were quite common.
Did Poles party on graves? Like Mexicans? That’s right.
Let’s stay on the topic of ghouls for a moment. Kozak mentioned that there were very... self-aware ghouls. Parents on their deathbed could instruct their children to take all precautions during burial to prevent their return. However, in life, people suspected of witchcraft, secret powers, or vampirism were socially ostracized; they were avoided and pushed to the margins of society. This could also have been the case with the woman whose grave we found.
You mentioned that she was buried properly to enable her soul to have a peaceful afterlife. Why was her head placed to the west? This was dictated by Church mandates, so the deceased would face east, towards Jerusalem. The west was associated with sunset, darkness, and the realm of the dead.
This rule was not followed for criminals. They were buried carelessly, often just thrown into a grave.
We have city chronicles from the 17th and 18th centuries, describing, among other things, that after a hanging, the bodies were left hanging for up to a month. I know of an account from Silesia where, 30 days after the execution, the executioner returned, cut down the body, laid it face down, and left it there. Sometimes, after an execution, they would simply dig a hole near the gallows and bury the criminals there. In some cases, the severed head was placed by the feet.
Why? Perhaps because if they woke up, they would have too far to reach for it. However, such a measure might not have been enough for those suspected of witchcraft or harming the living, as it was believed that a person could lie in their grave and still cause harm.
As a spirit? Yes, of course. And this is again related to the night, not the day. All kinds of rustling or strange noises were interpreted as a sign that the deceased had returned from the afterlife or was trying to return.
Let’s leave vampires aside for a moment. How should an ordinary member of the community be buried so their soul could peacefully go to heaven? In Edmund Kizik’s "Death in a Hanseatic City in the 16th–18th Centuries," he describes the complex procedure followed by Protestants in dealing with the deceased. The water used to wash the body was not to be poured out near farmland to avoid contaminating the food. In the house, mirrors were covered...
Many people still do that. Why? So that none of the living would see the reflection of the deceased’s soul in the mirror, as it would then drag them along.
Before talking with you, I looked up what people say about funerals online, and I found, for example, the belief that "If the deceased lies through Sunday, they will take someone from the family with them." In the 17th century, it was widely believed that souls could wander in the world of the living and take revenge for not being allowed to peacefully wait for resurrection. For example, Protestants believed that the cemetery was really a sleeping chamber. The dead were asleep. The traces of pillows found in cemeteries, regardless of their practical function, may also have had symbolic significance in this context.
The body was laid in the grave in such a way that the person could sleep comfortably and peacefully. Most often, this was a straight position, lying on their back, with their hands placed along the body or sometimes on their lap. Some people were buried in a grave pit, some likely in coffins, others in shrouds, and some in festive clothing. The Church forbade lavish funerals and burials, but the pomp and circumstance were often characteristic of the times we are interested in.
Pompa funebris? The ritual of a lavish burial, where the deceased was dressed in expensive clothes for the coffin. Townspeople held elaborate funerals to "show off," not to mention bishops or kings, of course. And in villages, it was modest. So modest that sometimes it’s hard to tell whether the cemetery was Catholic or Protestant, because there’s nothing in the grave besides the skeleton.
You mentioned numerous children’s graves. What do they look like? Sometimes quite macabre. Deceased newborns were buried with their mothers who died in childbirth, so when we find a woman’s skeleton with a small child, we’re not surprised.
However, we were puzzled when, in 2007, we discovered a grave in Pień where a 20–30-year-old man was buried, and on his lower legs was a child around two years old. The child was laid in a strange position: its arms were spread out like a cross.
How can this be interpreted? We are still pondering this. Was there some tragedy? An epidemic? Were these people related? Was the man the father? Brother? I asked priests what could have motivated such a burial, but the clergy were just as surprised.
Another similar case was found at a cemetery in Wrocław. An elderly man and two children were buried in the grave. One of the children was embracing the man’s thigh. Why were the child’s arms arranged this way? It’s hard to explain.
Staying with the macabre: before burial, did people make sure the deceased was actually dead? They would place a mirror or a feather by the mouth to check for any breath.
Even so, we discover burials where it seems the deceased moved after being laid to rest. The fact is, people were buried alive as a punishment. For example, for killing a fetus.
In Silesia, a woman’s grave was found among those of male criminals, and it’s believed this may be an example of such a practice.
The things you’re talking about are fascinating. Next year, we plan to continue our research in Pień. The question is, what else will we find!
How long does someone have to work diligently with a small brush before finding something valuable to science? It varies, and we don’t just work with small brushes; sometimes our tools are even bulldozers and excavators when investigating certain sites.
The working methods vary. So does the money. Sometimes research is conducted almost for free, but there are also enormous sums involved...
Enormous sums in Polish science?! That’s the most surprising thing you’ve said today. The National Science Centre or the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities grants can sometimes amount to several million złotys. It happens. Which, of course, doesn’t change the fact that, generally speaking, our country spends incomparably less on science than Western countries do.
For the two-week research in Pień, we had 15,000 złotys. We mainly relied on volunteers.
What you’re saying now fits with my vision of the working conditions for Polish scientists. I was wondering if I should even conduct this research! It was a bit like guerrilla warfare. Poles know how to make do.
Let’s say a high school student is reading this and dreams of becoming an archaeologist. They imagine it’s a fascinating, full-of-surprises job where they’ll travel a lot across the country and the world. Would you encourage them or discourage them? A tough question. Unfortunately, work is quite scarce. There are private archaeological companies, but they operate in a highly competitive environment, and there are currently fewer projects because the boom in archaeological research related to major investments has passed. One thing is certain: working as an archaeologist requires a lot of patience.
I can tell you, however, what I’m proud of. I give general university lectures where I talk about, among other things, the Teutonic Knights, burial customs, and Katyn. Do you know who enrolls most often? Not humanities students, but those from astronomy, physics, and mathematics!
I’m not surprised at all. They want to broaden their horizons. And a few of these people from the sciences even decided to study archaeology as well, influenced by my lecture.
Could you choose which of your discoveries is the most important? Definitely the latest one. Interpreting this burial will be a big challenge.
I hope that specialized research will help us solve, or at least bring us closer to, the mystery of this woman’s death and burial.
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Dariusz Poliński: Associate Professor at the Institute of Archaeology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He specializes in historical archaeology, with research interests focused on the late Middle Ages, particularly the former Teutonic State territory, including the historical Chełmno land. From 2004 to 2010 and in 2022, he led archaeological research on a medieval and early modern settlement complex in Pień, during which many important discoveries were made. He is the author of numerous publications, including several books.
Anna Kalita: A political science graduate from the University of Wrocław. Journalist. In 2016, she received an honorary mention at the Festival of Fact Art and was nominated for the Grand Press Award in the investigative journalism category for her report "There is No Justice Here" on TVN's "UWAGA!" program, about the mistreatment of Alzheimer's patients in a nursing home. In 2019, she was also nominated for the Teresa Torańska Newsweek Award for her articles on the trade of newborns in the Polish People's Republic, published on Weekend.gazeta.pl. She is passionate about people and their stories, and her work allows her to tell these stories. Contact the author: anna.kalita@agora.pl.
