Poland's 'vampire' was pinned down to 'stop her returning from dead'

It was two years ago in rural Poland that archeologists made a gruesome discovery – a skeleton buried with a sickle across her neck and a giant padlock on her toe. 

Feared as a 'real-life vampire', this form of 'double protection' was fitted to the female corpse by Polish locals to keep her from rising from the grave. 

Now, the experts have revealed new information about the woman, along with artist's illustrations of what she may have looked like.

The 'vampire', christened Zosia by the archeologists, was 18 years old at her time of death, about 350 years ago in the mid-17th century. 

Bone scans have uncovered an abnormality in Zosia's breast bone, which suggest she may have had a physical deformity that caused great pain.  

It may have been this deformity that made her especially feared as a vampire before she was brutally sacrificed and buried. 

But despite being deemed to attack the living after death, the artist's impression suggests she was fair of face with blue eyes and cropped hair. 

The latest revelations about Zosia are the subject of a new two-part documentary, 'Field of Vampires', to be broadcast on Sky History. 

Zosia is one of around 100 skeletons to have been found in a field outside the small village of Pien, south of the city of Torun, Poland. 

She was unearthed in summer 2022 by archaeologist Professor Dariusz Polinski and his partner Magda Zagrodzka.

It was late in their excavation at Pien two years ago that Professor Polinski's trowel had struck what sounded like metal. 

After carefully brushing away the soil, researchers found Zosia, who is the only skeleton in the field with a sickle around her neck. 

An agricultural tool with a sharp, curved blade, the sickle would have been fitted to ensure she would decapitate herself if she tried to rise from the dead.

'It can be assumed that for some reason those burying the woman were afraid that she would rise from the grave,' said Professor Polinski.  

'Perhaps they feared she was a vampire.

'The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured.' 

Zosia was also found with a silk cap on her head, indicating she had held a high social status, as well as a protruding tooth. 

Zosia's bone scans were examined by medical investigator Dr Heather Edgar at the University of New Mexico, who identified an abnormality in the breast bone.

This could have been a visible deformity that caused Zosia pain and 'marked this person [to others] in a negative way,' Dr Edgar told the Times. 

Because she died around the time of Swedish-Polish wars, the researchers speculate that she might be Swedish and was thus considered an 'unwanted outsider'. 

Polinski and Zagrodzka have worked with facial reconstruction expert Oscar Nilsson, who took a digital scan of her skull and made a copy using a 3D printer.

He moulded new 'muscles' of her face using clay and used silicon to give her new skin.

In all, about 100 graves have been found at the Pien field, dubbed the 'Field of Vampires' because about 30 have signs of being restrained. 

The 100 graves include a partially exhumed child, a pregnant woman, a woman with advanced syphilis and a man with a child's corpse at his feet. 

Professor Polinski says that this cemetery was specifically for people who were 'excluded from the community'. 

However, all of the graves were left unmarked and there is not even any written records about bodies at the site, making identification a monumental task. 

Some bodies had been turned face down, others were weighed down with stones, while others carried coins in their mouths.

'Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone,' Professor Poliński told MailOnline. 

However, only Zosia had the sickle over her neck, suggesting that she was feared the most by those who killed her. 

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The sickle around the neck is rare, although not unheard of; only this year, researchers found a body in a Pączewo church with laid in a similar fashion.  

Records of myths about the undead date back as far as the 11th century in Eastern Europe, while vampire myths date to the late 17th and 18th centuries. 

People feared that some who were buried would claw their way back up to the surface as blood-sucking monsters, and terrorize the living.

In parts of the Europe – particularly among Slavic people – belief in vampires became so widespread that it caused mass hysteria, and even led to executions.

People who died in untimely ways – such as through suicide – would also often have been suspected of vampirism, and their bodies would have been mutilated to prevent them from rising from the dead.

Thanks to classics like Bram Stoker's Dracula and F W Murnau's Nosferatu, the legend of the vampire has pervaded across the world today. 

Professor Polinski and his partner plan to return to Pien for more excavations, including one at night using fluorescent lamps to uncover any new bones.

Field of Vampires will be air on Sky History at 9pm on October 29 and November 5.