Hello, people! I’m new here, so don’t yell at me if this has been posted already :

http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/377/czech_...nal_news/25427/

Archaeologists find grave of suspected vampire

Pardubice, East Bohemia, July 11 (CTK) - Archaeologists have uncovered a 4000-year-old grave in Mikulovice, east Bohemia, with remains of what might have been considered a vampire at the time, Nova TV has reported.
The experts made the terrifying find within their research of a burial site from the Early Bronze Age.
One of the graves was situated somewhat aside. The skeleton in it bears traces of unusual treatment.
When buried, the dead man was weighed down with two big stones, one on his chest and the other on his head.
"Remains treated in this way are now considered as vampiric. The dead man's contemporaries were afraid that he might leave his grave and return to the world," Radko Sedlacek from the East Bohemia Museum said.
This is for the first time Czech archaeologists have uncovered a "vampire's" grave, Nova said.
In ancient times, people believed vampires are the dead who occasionally return among the living to harm their health or property.

On July 18th Russian newspapers wrote about another finding like that in Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg, East Prussia). The builders came across a undated yet grave, where the body was placed in a double coffin. The head was missing, replaced by a stone; there was a wooden peg hammered into the chest; around the feet there was some pottery arranged. It is unclear yet was it the area of an old German cemetery or the grave was of pre-German period.

We have a lot of old stories about vampires here (I'm in Croatia). And those stories often include description of "procedures" - how the vampire has to be killed, how he has to be burried. But I haven't realised how far in the past this belief goes.

There is much folk lore surrounding the vampire, the books written by Reverend Montague Summers details most if not all of the folk lore and superstitions connected with vampires.
Real vampirism has very little to do with these mythological monsters.

Perhaps you should take that up with the folks that buried this vampire, 4000 years ago.

That's pretty cool.



I wonder what the symtoms where in regards to the deacesed and the body.
What was their reasons 4000 yrs ago to bury dead in such a manner???
Plague, sickness? Failing crops and livestock etc.

I would assume that back then It was easier to lay blame on the unfortunate tainted dead than It was to blame the conditions and their surrounding environment.



What was there reasons for doing this?



So true!

Maybe the pottery around the feet had something to do with internal organs. I really do not know much about that kind of stuff, but it seems logical. Maybe?

similar to kanopic jars in egypt........

there could be any number of reasons to do this back before modern science/medicine......

Either way the people who buried him were successful.

Well, Inc1 I have spoken to them about this small issue . . . . IN THE ASTRAL!!!! muhahahahaha!

If this person were a real vampire, they would not have been successful, as stated before this a just another case of folk lore and folk lore treatments.

I am quite well aware of this. I don't think a real vampire could overcome a rock.

Amazing you're able to determine that, with great certainty, from your vantage six thousand miles away.........

That was sarcasm, right?
Oh . . . ha ha ha ha

What does distance have to do with any of this?

Blah, blah
*throws water ballons at Inc1 and Et* Behave. lol

Egypt: Canopic Chests and Jars

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/canopic.htm

Well, in cases of traditional «vampires» here in my part of the world, those folk treatments were successful. For example, in the village Kringa in Istria there was a man named Jure Grando, who kept coming every night to harass his widow. Until angry villagers opened his grave (found him inside smiling) and drove a wooden stake through his heart and chopped his head off. The grave filled with blood. Jure never showed himself out of his grave again. Neither would I in his place.

We can laugh at superstition of my ancestors, but the fact that they developed specific procedures for fighting vampires intrigues me. I'm aware that vampirism is explained with various diseases and folk fantasy. Only, it just doesn't really explain some of the stories (if they are true, of course).

EtuMalku, I don't know much about your belief but I agree that vampires from Slavic lore are not the same as the modern concept of «energy sucking beings» or eternals from your belief. It is often hard to distinguish vampire from werewolf in our folk tales, and originally they were not necessary evil. Exclusive "evil" definition came with Christianity.

May I ask, "What is the history behind werewolves from where you come from"? Sounds interesing, do you have a link to the stories behind them?

Ive heard a lot of people say the same thing before about evil. Im convinced its quite true.

I have to search for some links to sites in English, but if you would like I can write down something short about "krsnik" - traditional werewolf-like beings and stuff?

But you do realize that the folk lore vampires were created by Man? True vampires have been around for thousands of years and haven't changed.
The fact that your lores intermingled vampires and werewolves was probably because they were used among other things, as a sort of loup garu and meant to frighten children from wandering off and to keep people from straying from the religious beliefs lest they become one of the 'undead'.

id rather read the stories from a person who grew up with them, not an english site that probably mistranslated the words and grammartical syntax






oh, distance really doesnt mean much anymore, didnt you read the recent article about the archeologist who used google map to look at possible sites of historical significance in Afghanistan? He found about 450 possible sites of historic significance......and is sharing them with the Afghani archeologists so they can go to the sites.........

Well, Riggs, I have to do some of my earthly job now, but I'll put some lore here tonight.

EtuMalku, I don't want to offend you, but honestly said, I don't exactly believe either in lore-vampires either in vampires that are true for you. I do believe the subject is more than just fantasy, but I don't take it literally. There's something behind all those legends, but none of us can say what it is with certainty.

Helen of Annoy, welcome to U-M! Very interesting thread, and I thank you. Your screen handle is very amusing, too.

EtuMalku has never found a vampire thread in which he can't help correcting people on their hopelessly naive beliefs. Everything everyone else thought they knew about the subject is just wrong, and he never fails to interject "proper" (in his mind, at least) information. He's regular as clockwork.

[the East Bohemia Museum said.
This is for the first time Czech archaeologists have uncovered a "vampire's" grave, Nova said.
In ancient times, people believed vampires are the dead who occasionally return among the living to harm their health or property.
[/quote]

no picture no good

Thanx, Incorrigible1! I like your screen handle too I'm still meditating on avatar to represent me here, I hope I'll put together something amusing too.

And I promised some lore about werewolves and company, but it has grew so long I decided to make a separate topic out of it. (In Myths and Legends, where it belongs.) I just can’t stop talking about that!

They didn't necessarily believe he was a vampire. Many ancient cultures believed that unsolved murder victims could find no peace and had to be treated in this way to stop them rising up and wandering about.

Inc1: those were the kindest words I've ever heard coming from you . . . . now, knock it off!!

I believe you're right. Also, sometimes those suspected to rise again were burried with arms and legs tied with rope.
We'll probably never find out what was the reason with this one.

True - there is always quite a bit of speculation involved I suppose. But great article - how awesome to be the archaeologists finding that one!

Vampires from this all present a social minority group, which is regularly discriminated, abused, mistreated and deprived of the right of self-expression. Meanwhile I have never seen any HRW reports on this issue. The people get their bodies mutilated, organs taken away and substituted by stones, outdated food placed in their coffins, and there is no one to fight for their rights. No wonder they get upset and attack anyone who enters astral, their last refuge from social injustice.

Brilliant!

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Hi, I'm new to the thread, just not the site.

Heck! I'd get miffed too if someone dug me up and carted my parts around trying to decide where THEY wanted to throw me.

Cremation for me folks so I get to decide where to throw me!!

I agree that vampires from Slavic lore are not the same as the modern concept of «energy sucking beings» or eternals from your belief. It is often hard to distinguish vampire from werewolf in our folk tales, and originally they were not necessary evil. Exclusive "evil" definition came with Christianity.


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Even in the US, and before that the American Colonies, Vampires were feared. However the primary causehere was usualyy TB which made the deceased, when dug up, appear to be still alive. The "Last Vampire" in the US was a young girl whos family had all been struck by TB. First a sister, then her mother, then the the girl herself died. When her brother fell ill, near death, the community dug up all three women as neighbors said they had seen the girl at night walking from house to house looking into opened windows. The sister and mother's remains had started to decompose, but the "vampire girl" appeared to be just sleeping.

The minister (or her father, the story varies) cut her heart out and blood flowed from her chest, confirming she was a Vampire. They burned her heart, poured the ash into a mug of water and gave it to her brother to drink under the belief that it would cure him. He of course died later.

Before putting the girl back into her grave they cut her head off and stuck it between her legs. Other graves found in colonial communities have also produced burials where the deceased head had been removed and place between the legs.

Guess there is always a way to get rid of a blood sucker, besides voting them out of office.

What is brilliant? The vampires that are being spoken of are just humans, normal Mankind.
There are not as many true vampires as everyone thinks there are .

What do you mean, "What is brilliant?" It was a great post.

Coolness! Yes please.

I've put it in a separate thread "Slavic mythical beings" in "Cryptozoology, Myths and Legends", because it grew rather long.

There you can find belief and stories related to my country, but if someone shows interest, I can translate some of the legends from other Slavic countries too.

Awesome, thanx and yes. Ive still got a bit more reading to do over that way.

Well, more stories coming soon! I was thinking about starting "Slavic folk tales" - something not limited only to mythical beings but there will be werewolves in it for sure.

I guess it would have been 'brilliant' had any of it been correct.

oo thats spookie, very cool find