Author Topic: They're digging out vampires! (Read 1710 times)

islander · « **on:** June 07, 2012, 01:20:37 PM »

Are you sure digging him up is a good idea? Archaeologists find Bulgarian 'vampires' from Middle Ages with iron rods staked through their chests

By Daniel Miller
06 June 2012

If you thought vampires were simply the stuff of myth and legend-- and perhaps the odd teen horror film-- think again.

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into the undead.

They are the latest in a succession of finds across western and central Europe which shed new light on just how seriously people took the threat of vampires and how those beliefs transformed into the modern myth.

Find: Two skeletons, believed to be those of suspected Medieval vampires,
were discovered with iron poles plunged through their chests in the
Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol

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islander · « **Reply #1 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:24:32 PM »

The two skeletons, believed to be around 800 years old, were discovered during an archaeological dig near a monastery in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol.

Bulgaria's national history museum chief Bozhidar Dimitrov said: 'These two skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th century.'

A close up of one of the 'vampire'
skeletons discovered with a metal
bar through its chest

According to pagan beliefs, people who were considered bad during their lifetimes might turn into vampires after death unless stabbed in the chest with an iron or wooden rod before being buried.

People believed the rod would also pin them down in their graves to prevent them from leaving at midnight and terrorising the living, the historian explained.

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islander · « **Reply #2 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:26:02 PM »

According to Mr Dimitrov over 100 buried people whose corpses were stabbed to prevent them from becoming vampires have been discovered across Bulgaria over the years.

He added: 'I do not know why an ordinary discovery like that became so popular. Perhaps because of the mysteriousness of the word "vampire".

'These people were believed to be evil while they were alive, and it was believed that they would become vampires once they are dead, continuing to torment people.'

According to Dimitrov, 'vampires' were often aristocrats and clerics.

He added: 'The curious thing is that there are no women among them. They were not afraid of witches.'

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islander · « **Reply #3 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:34:31 PM »

However last month Italian researchers discovered what they believed to be the remains of a female 'vampire' in Venice - buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague which swept the city in the 16th century.

Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.

Find: The two skeletons were discovered during a dig outside a monastery
in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol

Sozopol: According to the head of Bulgaria's natural history museum
100 corpses of people who were stabbed to prevent them from becoming
vampires have been discovered across the country over the years

The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576-- in which the artist Titian died-- on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around two miles northeast of Venice and was used as a sanitorium for plague sufferers.

Borrini said: 'This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire.

'This helps ... authenticate how the myth of vampires was born.'

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islander · « **Reply #4 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:39:11 PM »

The succession of plagues which ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 fostered the belief in vampires, mainly because the decomposition of corpses was not well understood, Borrini said.

Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive.

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 in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.

The remains of a female 'vampire' from 16th-century Venice, buried
with a brick in her mouth to prevent her feasting on plague victims

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islander · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:46:58 PM »

'To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there,' said Borrini.

'It's possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognised.'

While legends about blood-drinking ghouls date back thousands of years, the modern figure of the vampire was encapsulated in the Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 novel 'Dracula,' based on 18th century eastern European folktales.

video link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2154837/Vampire-skeletons-unearthed-Bulgaria-iron-stakes-plunged-chests.html

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islander · « **Reply #6 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:48:56 PM »

BATTY BELIEFS: EUROPE'S FEAR OF VAMPIRES IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The belief in vampires was widespread throughout Bulgaria and other parts of central Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

The word vampire is derived from the original Slavic term opyrb or opir which later appears as vipir, vepir, or vapir.

Drunkards, thieves and murderers were all believed to be likely candidates to become vampires.

Appearing completely normal, they would arrive at a town and live amongst the people often even marrying and fathering children. But at night they would wander the countryside in search of blood.

These types of vampires could be destroyed with a stake through the heart.

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islander · « **Reply #7 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:50:22 PM »

One account maintains that a vampire was the soul of an outlaw who died in the mountains or forest or along a country road, and whose corpse is eaten by crows, wolves, or some other such scavengers.

Because such a soul is not permitted to enter heaven or hell it remains on earth haunting the place where he was killed strangling and drinking the blood of anyone who comes by.

Another account states a person who died a violent, unnatural death or whose corpse was jumped over by a cat before burial, can become a vampire.

In such cases during the first 40 days after burial, the bones turn to gelatin and the vampire performs mischief at night - releasing animals from their pens, scattering house hold items, and suffocating people.

During the first forty days it can be destroyed by a Vampiridzhija - a professional vampire hunter capable of seeing them - or alternatively devoured by a wolf.

However if not destroyed in this time period the Vampire would develop a skeleton and becomes even more fierce.

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islander · « **Reply #8 on:** June 07, 2012, 01:56:08 PM »

In other areas, the unexplained deaths of cattle or other livestock were often taken as proof that a type of vampire known as an Ustrel was at large.

These were believed to be the spirits of children born on a Saturday but who died before receiving baptism.

On the ninth day after its burial, an Ustrel would climb out of the ground and attack cattle or sheep by draining their blood before returning to its grave before dawn.

To kill an Ustrel, a village would have to go through a ritual known as lighting of a needfire.

This involved extinguishing all the village household fires on a Saturday morning before rounding up all the cattle and sheep in an open space.

From there the animals were marched to a nearby crossroads where two bonfires, lit by a new fire created by rubbing sticks together, had been set up.

By guiding the animals between the fires the vampire would become stranded at the crossroads where wolves devoured it.

Before the bonfires burned out, someone took a flame and used it to relight all the household fires in the village.

Movie legend: Christopher Lee as Count Dracula gets his comeuppance
with a stake through the heart in the 1958 film Dracula

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

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maryhazel · « **Reply #9 on:** June 07, 2012, 02:41:34 PM »

nah, mobalik napod ang panahon sa wakwak hehehheheh

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vrglguapo · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2012, 03:28:49 PM »

Very interesting.

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islander · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2012, 04:17:19 PM »

nah, mobalik napod ang panahon sa wakwak hehehheheh

naa man tingaliy mga tblanders nga kun mangahubog mangwakwak, hakhakhak!

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vrglguapo · « **Reply #12 on:** June 07, 2012, 09:24:26 PM »

Ug mahubog na mangita ug vampira nga pula ug ngabil.nga ga suroysuroy sa kadalanan.

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chicogon · « **Reply #13 on:** June 08, 2012, 07:18:52 AM »

Basin dihay plague or virus sa una - e.g. rabies - maong hadlok mga tawo nga mapaakan sa mga biktima sa sakit. Unya too-toohon man mga tawo - basin dunay padagan nga istorya nga dunay mga aswang - maong nauso pod ang "panusok" ug uban pa... to counter the urband legend/myth and just to be sure nga safe pod. Middle Ages baya ni na time hehehe

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #14 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:22:12 AM »

nah, mobalik napod ang panahon sa wakwak hehehheheh

Alive and kicking (and flying) man ang wakwakism, lie low lang una sila ron...

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #15 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:23:10 AM »

naa man tingaliy mga tblanders nga kun mangahubog mangwakwak, hakhakhak!

Hmm, kon hubog na, mao hinuoy mawakwakan...

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #16 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:24:14 AM »

Ug mahubog na mangita ug vampira nga pula ug ngabil.nga ga suroysuroy sa kadalanan.

Gasuroysuroy unya molupad usahay, pero mubo rag lupad?

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #17 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:25:22 AM »

Basin dihay plague or virus sa una - e.g. rabies - maong hadlok mga tawo nga mapaakan sa mga biktima sa sakit. Unya too-toohon man mga tawo - basin dunay padagan nga istorya nga dunay mga aswang - maong nauso pod ang "panusok" ug uban pa... to counter the urband legend/myth and just to be sure nga safe pod. Middle Ages baya ni na time hehehe

Daghan baya gihapong too-toohon ron...

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statesville · « **Reply #18 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:32:56 AM »

wakwak nga may 3 meters span?..

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #19 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:53:21 AM »

wakwak nga may 3 meters span?..

Bwahaha! Hain na kaha diay mangwakwak si Bay Vist, dugay2x na man nga wa kabalik diris TB...

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islander · « **Reply #20 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:59:43 AM »

Bwahaha! Hain na kaha diay mangwakwak si Bay Vist, dugay2x na man nga wa kabalik diris TB...

nangwakwak pa to sa laing websites. like any wakwak, mopatim-aw ra to when we least expect it. ibig sabihin, in his own good time, and we welcome him oldataym gihapon. hoy, flying segs, tumaw na. daghan kog ahos diri, hikhikhik.

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islander · « **Reply #21 on:** June 08, 2012, 11:00:41 AM »

ajaw na lang diha paghuwat nga ma-dig ka pa, hikhikhik.

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #22 on:** June 08, 2012, 11:15:38 AM »

nangwakwak pa to sa laing websites. like any wakwak, mopatim-aw ra to when we least expect it. ibig sabihin, in his own good time, and we welcome him oldataym gihapon. hoy, flying segs, tumaw na. daghan kog ahos diri, hikhikhik.

Hmm, basin maoy nawakwakan, nabiktima sa vampires of the night with red lips...

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chicogon · « **Reply #23 on:** June 08, 2012, 11:23:44 AM »

ajaw na lang diha paghuwat nga ma-dig ka pa, hikhikhik.

Kini siya kay dili magpa dig... exhibitionist ni siya kay gapatara

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #24 on:** June 08, 2012, 11:26:05 AM »

Hmm, unsa ni siya? Flying Segbin?

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chicogon · « **Reply #25 on:** June 09, 2012, 06:14:48 AM »

Mga wakwak sa ato kay isog... makigbugno ni Jose Rizal

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #26 on:** June 09, 2012, 07:21:50 AM »

Hmm, mora mag gatustos...

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