A CREEPY “vampire graveyard” has been found where children were buried face-down with padlocked feet.
Archaeologists found the child skeleton on a dig at a 17th century cemetery in the Polish village of Pien, just a year after a “vampire woman” was found at the same site.
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Villagers made sure to bury the child face-down so that that if they awoke, they would bite the ground rather than suck the blood from the people above them, The Times reports.
The “little vampire”, believed to be around six years old, also had its foot held in padlocks so it would struggle to pull itself from the grave.
Locals even went one step further as after burying the corpse, the top half of its body was stolen and presumably destroyed.
Archaeologists believe they have found the first evidence for a child “revenant” – a corpse feared by locals to be at risk of reanimation.
The finding has put Pien back into the history spotlight this week, as multiple other bodies were unearthed with “anti-revenant” protection methods.
Myths surrounding the undead and vampires date back to as early as the 11th century in eastern Europe, and it is not uncommon for skeletons bearing the marks of these superstitions to be unearthed.
The child skeleton was “clearly greatly feared”, said Dariusz Poliński, from Nicolaus Copernicus University and leader of the dig.
“The reason for such a brutal and disgusting burial is unknown,” he explained.
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But he thinks the partial exhumation suggests that at some point after death the child had been accused of harming the living.
“Maybe the child was found guilty of someone’s death, an accident, or even just creating worse living conditions in general,” Poliński said.
Just a few feet away from the “little vampire”, a “female vampire” skeleton was found with a blade pinned across her throat.
Similarly to the child, the woman had a padlocked toe to “prevent her returning from the dead”.
Researchers found the woman had a silk cap on her head – indicating a high social status – and a protruding tooth.
Professor Poliński told the Daily Mail: “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.
“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.”
He said the padlocked big toe on the left foot strengthened the theory she was considered a vampire at the time of her death and likely symbolised “the impossibility of returning”.
