In Italy, discovered the remains of a medieval "vampire."

In Italy, discovered the remains of a medieval "vampire."

Italian archaeologists revealed the results of the excavations carried out in the island near Venice Latstsaretto Nuovo in 2006.

In the Middle Ages there was a cemetery for the townspeople, who died of the plague in 1576.

One of the most unusual finds was the skeleton of a woman, between the teeth which was inserted into a brick. During two years of research, conducted by the University of Florence, it was found that in this way the Venetians tried to punish those who, in their opinion, sent epidemic - vampires. Bypassing any Christian attitudes were desperate citizens, will likely go to the pagan ideas and committed ritual "murder" is already dead by the time a woman who was considered a vampire.

"We have found the first evidence that in the Middle Ages did the ritual" casting out demons "(exorcism) in relation to the alleged vampires" - says Florentine archaeologist and anthropologist Matteo Borrini.

According to the scientist, during the medieval epidemics often overcrowded cemetery excavated to bury fresh corpses. Quite often such graves were opened, and the eyes of wonder diggers often appeared strange picture: from the mouth of the dead man oozing blood, and in a shroud, the position of the face, there is an inexplicable hole. The conclusion can only be done one: the man is alive, he gnawed the shroud, the better to drink human blood.

To kill the undead stake in the heart, so popular in mass culture, it was not enough. We had to drive in the mouth "vampire" stone or brick, that the villain had died of starvation. This, it is believed, is what happened to the woman on the island Latstsaretto Nuovo, which was used as a quarantine zone. She was about 60 years old, she died of the plague, which claimed the life of the great painter Titian.

"Vampires do not exist, but studies show that people at that time believed that they are" - says Matteo Borrini, an archaeologist and anthropologist at the University of Florence, who has studied burial last two years. "For the first time we have found evidence of an exorcism of a vampire ".

Archaeologists have discovered that this burial was used again at a later time.