'Anti-vampiric' grave used two strategies to stop the undead

Archaeologists excavated a 17th-century grave in Pień, north-central Poland containing a young woman, nicknamed Zosia, interred with two anti-resurrection features: a sickle positioned with its serrated blade over her throat and a triangular padlock looped around the big toe of her left foot. Soil disturbance and bone arrangement indicate the padlock was placed at burial and the sickle was added later. Traces of green staining on the skull suggest copper objects were forced into the mouth or nose, a practice tied in regional folklore to ward off revenants. Isotope analysis of her teeth places her upbringing near Pień while maternal DNA points to Scandinavian ancestry, and surviving fragments of a silk cap with gold and silver threads indicate high social status.

The research team compiled comparative historic evidence and multidisciplinary lab work to argue that the sickle and padlock were deliberate measures to prevent the deceased from returning as a malevolent undead, making this the first documented case with both strategies in a single interment. No clear signs of violent death appear on the skeleton, and further genetic work is ongoing. The cemetery contains other unusual burials and lies off maps, suggesting it functioned as a repository for people feared in life or death and offering a rare window into post-medieval mortuary practices and social responses to perceived threats from the dead.