Nightmares Unearthed: An excavation at a macabre graveyard has unveiled a Bulgarian vampire secured to his final resting place by a metal spike.
The ancient skeleton, identified as a 35 to 40-year-old male, represents only the second instance of a skeleton with a spike driven near its heart in this manner, the first being discovered last year in the southern town of Sozopol.
It is believed that the man, deemed a vampire by his medieval contemporaries, was affixed to his grave using the ploughshare – the metal end of a plough – as a means to prevent him from departing at midnight and terrorizing the living.
The ancient skeleton, identified as a 35-40-year-old male, was discovered with a large metal ploughshare (pictured in rusty orange, top right) driven through his left shoulder.
The discovery took place at the Perperikon site in the east of the country during an excavation led by the ‘Bulgarian Indiana Jones,’ Professor Nikolai Ovcharov.
Last year, a team led by Professor Ovcharov uncovered another 700-year-old skeleton of a man pinned down in his earth in a church in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.
The skeleton, known as the ‘Sozopol vampire,’ was pierced through the chest with a ploughshare, and his teeth were pulled out before being laid to rest.
Professor Ovcharov has described the latest finding as the ‘twin of the Sozopol vampire’ and suggested it could provide insights into how vampire beliefs from Pagan times were preserved by Christians in the Middle Ages.
The man, believed to be a vampire in his time, was affixed to his grave using the plough to prevent him from departing at midnight and terrorizing the living.
The discovery was made at Perperikon during an excavation led by the ‘Bulgarian Indiana Jones,’ Professor Nikolai Ovcharov.
Coins found with the body have been dated to the 13th and 14th centuries.
In other cases, Professor Ovcharov mentioned finding skeletons “nailed to the ground with iron staples driven into the limbs,” but this marks only the second instance where a ploughshare was used near the heart.
“The ploughshare weighs almost 2 pounds (0.9kg) and is dug into the body into a broken shoulder bone,” he explained. “You can clearly see how the collarbone has literally popped out.”
This discovery is the latest in a series of finds across western and central Europe that provide new insights into how seriously people perceived the threat of vampires.
In the previous year, a team led by Professor Ovcharov excavated another 700-year-old skeleton of a man, found secured in the ground within a church in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.
Professor Ovcharov has described the latest finding, discovered at Perperikon (pictured), as the ‘twin of the Sozopol vampire’ and suggested it could shed light on how vampire beliefs from Pagan times were preserved by Christians in the Middle Ages.
According to Pagan belief, individuals perceived as malevolent during their lifetimes might transform into vampires after death unless stabbed in the chest with an iron or wooden rod before being buried.
These ‘vampires’ were often intellectuals, aristocrats, and clerics.
A skeleton found last year, quickly dubbed the ‘Sozopol vampire,’ was also pierced through the chest with a ploughshare.
‘The curious thing is that there are no women among them. They were not afraid of witches,’ said Bulgaria’s national history museum chief, Bozhidar Dimitrov.
The string of plagues that ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 helped solidify an already growing belief in vampires.
Gravediggers reopening mass graves following a plague would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths. The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse’s teeth, and vampires became known as ‘shroud-eaters.’
According to medieval medical and religious texts, the ‘undead’ were believed to spread pestilence to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.
‘In my opinion, it’s not about criminals or bad people,’ said Professor Ovcharov.
‘Rather, these are precautionary measures that prevent the soul from being taken by the forces of evil in the 40-day period after death.’
Over 100 buried people whose corpses were stabbed to prevent them from becoming vampires have been discovered across Bulgaria over the years.