From News24:
"The skeleton of woman who was probably believed to have been a vampire when she died in the Middle Ages has been uncovered in Venice.
Archaeologists made the find on Lazzaretto Nuovo, one of the hundreds of islands that make up the lagoon city, the ANSA news agency reported.
A brick found lodged in the skeleton's mouth suggests the woman's body was "staked", University of Florence expert Matteo Borrini said.
The procedure, according to Medieval superstition, prevented "undead vampires" from sucking blood from the corpses of those buried near them, Borrini explained.
The woman's burial is also probably linked to the belief that witches and vampires were responsible for spreading bubonic plague, the so-called "Black Death" that killed millions of people in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Lazzarretto Nuovo was probably used as a burial ground for victims of the plague, according to the experts."
"The skeleton of woman who was probably believed to have been a vampire when she died in the Middle Ages has been uncovered in Venice.
Archaeologists made the find on Lazzaretto Nuovo, one of the hundreds of islands that make up the lagoon city, the ANSA news agency reported.
A brick found lodged in the skeleton's mouth suggests the woman's body was "staked", University of Florence expert Matteo Borrini said.
The procedure, according to Medieval superstition, prevented "undead vampires" from sucking blood from the corpses of those buried near them, Borrini explained.
The woman's burial is also probably linked to the belief that witches and vampires were responsible for spreading bubonic plague, the so-called "Black Death" that killed millions of people in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Lazzarretto Nuovo was probably used as a burial ground for victims of the plague, according to the experts."
4 comments:
What I love about your blog is that it's so random. There's always something interesting to read and not in sequence. I really like that!
The whole brick in the mouth thing is something I had never heard before. Fascinating! www.satisfiedsole.com
Thanks for this post, Melisende. Isn't it interestig how we are still discovering? My friend was just there last summer and described it as such a beautiful place...you never know what lies beneath, as they say!
I keep forgetting to mention that I love you blog's new look:)
Thank you all for your kind words - they are most appreciated.
I try and find interesting articles rather then just posting whatever's current. And as I love history, i do like it when sometime strange and mystical emerges from the past.
Thanks again!
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