With a sickle across her neck and a padlock on her left big toe, the corpse of a young woman found in northern Poland would have been unable to rise from her unmarked grave, according to local 17th century folklore. But her identity and how she ended up in such a state are secrets researchers say they are just beginning to unlock.
Archaeologists first made the grim discovery in 2022 and have been studying the remains to understand who the woman was and why she, and perhaps others buried in the same field around 400 years ago, were feared as vampires or demons.
Based on a model of her skull and information from extracted DNA, researchers have recreated the face of a woman buried in an unusual grave in Pień, a village in northern Poland, in the 1600s.
Now, using the contours of her skull as well as information in a DNA sample extracted from her skeleton, researchers have recreated what her face may have looked like. The striking 3D reconstruction of Zosia, as locals nicknamed her, sheds light on the human found in the grisly grave.
Archaeologist Dariusz Poliński, who led the team that unearthed Zosia’s remains, said it was a “mind-blowing” moment when he saw the reconstruction by Swedish forensic artist Oscar Nilsson for the first time.
“He added so much feeling, so much emotion,” said Poliński, a professor of medieval history at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. “It wasn’t a mask.”
Swedish forensic artist Oscar Nilsson made the reconstruction using clay to replicate her muscle and tissues.
The research team’s journey of uncovering Zosia’s identity is featured in the new documentary “Field of Vampires,” which was produced by Caravan Media and aired Oct. 30 as an episode of the PBS series “Secrets of the Dead.”
For Nilsson, who painstakingly rebuilt Zosia’s face using clay placed on a 3D-printed model of her skull, it was emotional to see the young woman as she likely appeared in life.
“I’m used to reconstructing faces, but in this case also I’m looking forward to giving her some human dignity back,” he said in the documentary. “She deserved something better.”
A high-status outsider
Zosia was found buried with a sickle across her neck and a padlock on her toe, a folk practice intended to stop the dead from coming back to life.
Between 18 and 20 years old when she died, Zosia likely had a health condition that may have made her prone to experiencing severe chronic headaches and fainting spells, according to an analysis of the spine, Poliński said.
In addition, the sternum may have been deformed, possibly leading to the growth of a visible chest tumor that could have caused pain. However, the disorder was not the cause of her death, which remains unknown, and detailed medical analyses are ongoing.
Fragile silk fabric and metallic threads made of silver and gold, thought to be a trimming for a fine headdress or bonnet, found in her grave suggested she came from a wealthy or high-status background.
Information gleaned from DNA and chemical isotopes in her remains indicated that she may have originated from southern Scandinavia, perhaps Sweden. During the course of the 17th century, Poland and Sweden fought a series of wars, so Zosia could have been an outsider within her community. Europe in the 17th century was also in the grip of what’s known as the Little Ice Age, a period of cooling that in some places led to crop failure and famine.
Fear of the dead
The padlock and sickle were made of iron, Poliński said, a metal thought to offer protection against the supernatural, but he said that the objects were not placed on the body at the same time.
“Initially she was buried in a coffin in a natural position, with the head towards the west and on a pillow and the padlock on her toe,” he said.
However, he said, it appeared the protective power of the padlock wasn’t enough for those who feared Zosia’s reanimated corpse. “Maybe because of some misfortune or the death of somebody else, they decided to open the grave,” Poliński suggested.
In doing so, whoever disturbed her remains broke or twisted the spine. It was at this point, Poliński suspected, that they abandoned efforts to turn over or remove the body from the grave. Instead, the sickle was secured over her throat to deter the corpse from rising from the dead.
Opening and disturbing graves in this way was relatively common during the 17th century in the region because people often attributed misfortune to supernatural activity by the dead, Poliński said. Revenant graves, as they are known, are found throughout Europe and date from several different time periods.
“The dead were blamed for different happenings. The deceased person was believed to be a kind of trigger for some disease or death,” he said.
All cultures have a belief that the dead may return to bother the living, said Martyn Rady, the Masaryk Professor Emeritus of Central European History at University College London. Rady was not involved in the research project or the documentary.
“Generally, the ‘undead’ are people that have led violent lives or died violently or have not been buried with the proper funeral rites,” he said.
“All societies have revenants and they will use a number of strategies to stop them moving about after death — the sickle is one; staking down is another; putting thorny branches around the neck yet one more,” he added.
Rady said Zosia fell into the category of revenant, but was not technically a vampire, which he said were first described in the 1720s by officials of the Habsburg monarchy.
“They were quite clear that, in popular local legend, the vampire had three characteristics — it was a revenant, feasted on the living, and was contagious. The Austrian definition shaped the literary vampire legend.”
Ritualistic burials
Archaeologists first excavated the site in Pień near Dąbrowa Chełmińsk in northern Poland in 2005, and Poliński said the rural field was used as a cemetery for around four generations in the 17th century.
No written records about the place exist, nor does it feature on any maps. Geophysical surveys suggest many more graves are at the site beyond the dozens already excavated, Poliński said.
A year after discovering Zosia’s grave, the same team found a child’s remains buried in an unusual way. The skeleton was face down and the upper torso missing, and a padlock similar to the one found on Zosia’s body was uncovered beneath the legs. Another burial site revealed the skeleton of a pregnant woman with the remains of a fetus still present in her womb.
Poliński’s team is reexamining the previously excavated graves for “anti-vampiric” practices and hopes to understand how the individuals buried there are connected to one another by studying DNA samples. Poliński said the findings will be published in a scientific journal next year.
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