Case file · Folklore / legend
The padlocked 'vampire' woman of Pień
Archaeologists from Toruń announced in 2022 the 17th-century grave of a woman at Pień with a sickle laid across her throat and a padlock on her big toe, precautions against her return from the dead.
1650 CE · 53.27, 18.42 · status: explained
The account
The woman wore a silk cap, suggesting high status. Later seasons at the same cemetery found a child buried face down with a padlock at the foot. Such 'deviant burials' are common in Poland in the 17th century, when wars and epidemics swept the country.
The sceptical view
The grave shows fear of revenants among the living; it says nothing about anything the dead did.