![]() ![]() According to anthropologist Paul Barber, author of "Vampires, Burial, and Death," (1988, Yale University Press) stories from nearly every culture have some localized version of the vampire, and "bear a surprising resemblance to the European vampire." Relatively modern fictional vampires such as Dracula have little in common with the vampires that Europeans believed in - and protected themselves against - centuries ago. ![]() ![]() Whether this particular woman was suspected of being a vampire remains in dispute, but belief in vampires was widespread throughout Europe and everyday people took steps to address that threat. It's not clear whether the skeleton was in fact believed to have been a vampire other Italian anthropologists have expressed skepticism, suggesting instead that the brick, one of many in the area, may have simply been recovered near the jawbone. The woman was apparently buried with a brick wedged in her mouth - which was one method popular in the Middle Ages of preventing suspected vampires from returning to prey on the living. According to recent research published by forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini, the remains of a woman who died during a 16th-century plague in Venice, Italy, might be the earliest known vampire burial yet found. ![]()
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