Recently, an anthropologist from the University of Florence named Matteo Borini find a female skull with a brick stuck in his mouth in a mass grave on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo, near Venice, Italy. The cemetery was used to bury the victims of the Black Death that occurred in 1576, the outbreak of disease affecting Italy and claimed about 150,000 lives.
The discovery of this remarkable show how medieval society have their own views about superstitions regarding vampires sucking blood.
Shroud used to cover the corpse's face generally becomes obsolete because of bacteria from the mouth of the corpse and finally show the teeth of corpses. However, this process is misunderstood by medieval society. This is indicated by the existence of an ancient medieval manuscript which states that the body regain life by eating the shroud and inhale the remnants of the life of another corpse until they have enough strength to again rise from the dead. Therefore, in medieval vampire also known as "eater shroud"
"To kill the Vampire, you must remove the shroud from his mouth and then put something that can not be eaten instead. Because of that brick was used," said Mr Borrini. "There is a possibility of other bodies also have a brick like this in his mouth, but this is the first skull that we find in this condition." He continued.
Vampire superstitions have become part of European culture when it stormed the plague sweeping the entire continent. Lack of understanding about the natural stages of decomposition of the bodies may have sparked the spread of this myth. "Hard to interpret whether the bricks are plugged at the mouth of the corpse comes from the fear that in going to a vampire or just a precaution in difficult times." Borrini said. Figure we know through modern vampire Bram Stoker novel, Dracula, written in 1897.
However, generally widespread superstition also arise because of real events. Could the blood-sucking vampires actually exist in the Middle Ages?
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