"Vampire" burials in Poland were a mystery until recently. The interred were buried with sickles or rocks around their necks to prevent reanimation and feasting on villagers, according to Live Science, but a new study suggests these unfortunate beings were killed by a cholera epidemic.
Stories of vampires date back to 17th century eastern Europe, according to Live Science, when vampires didn't have to go through the trouble of sucking one's blood - they could kill with just one look.
People who died unbaptized, perished as a result of violence or were the first to die from a plague were often buried as vampires.
"People were up close and personal with death at this point but didn't have a good way to explain what was happening," study co-author Lesley Gregoricka, a bioarchaeologist at the University of South Alabama, told Live Science.
Bone fragments from 66 of the 333 burials at the Drawsko cemetery, a "vampire" burial site, were studied. Six of the bodies buried with sickles or rocks were believed to be immigrants to the area, but strontium isotopes in the bones from the environment proved the people were native to the area.
No signs of violence appeared on the "vampire" remains, thus Gregoricka and her team speculate that the feared dead were the first unfortunate victims of a cholera epidemic that occurred in the time period of the cemetery's use. Cholera can kill within hours of infection.
"If something kills you very quickly, it's not going to leave a mark on the bone," Gregoricka said, according to Live Science.
The discoveries by Gregoricka and her team were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
