Case file · Folklore / legend
The 'vampire' burials of Drawsko
Excavations of a 17th–18th-century cemetery at Drawsko in western Poland found several people buried with sickles across their necks or stones under their chins, apparently to stop them rising.
1650 CE · 53.53, 15.81 · status: explained
The account
The finds made headlines as 'vampire graves'. A 2014 isotope study showed the individuals were locals, not outsiders, and the researchers suggested they may have been the first victims of cholera epidemics, whose sudden deaths were blamed on revenants.
The sceptical view
The burials are real and show anti-revenant fears; whether 'vampire' is the right label is contested by the archaeologists themselves.