Monday, March 1, 2010

Vampire of Venice

From National Geographic:
A female "vampire" unearthed in a mass grave near Venice, Italy, may have been accused of wearing another evil hat: a witch's.

The 16th-century woman was discovered among medieval plague victims in 2006. Her jaw had been forced open by a brick—an exorcism technique used on suspected vampires in Europe at the time.

At the height of the European witch-hunts, between A.D. 1550 and 1650, more than 100,000 people were tried as witches and 60,000 were executed—the vast majority of them old women.

1 comment:

Keith said...

For those people who actually believed in witches and believed that certain people were witches, that is one thing. But for those that accused people of witchcraft for shear spite or personal gain it is absolutely unforgivable.