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The Venetian Vampire

Significance

  • This skull is helping archaeologists discover how the myth of vampires began, and how such individuals were exorcised.
  • Current Theory: As the human stomach decays, it releases a dark "purge fluid." This bloodlike liquid can flow freely from a corpse's nose and mouth. Since tombs and mass burials were often reopened during plagues to add new bodies, Italian gravediggers saw these decomposing remains and may have confused purge fluid with traces of vampire victims' blood. In addition, the fluid sometimes moistened the burial shroud near the corpse's mouth so that the cloth sagged into the jaw. This could create tears in the cloth that made it seem as if the corpse had been chewing on its shroud. Vampires were thought by some to be the causes of plagues, and the superstition took root that shroud-chewing was the "magical way" that vampires infected people, Borrini said. Inserting objects—such as bricks and stones—into the mouths of alleged vampires was thought to halt the spread of disease.

By: Faith Colaguori, Anthony Castaneda, and Ivy Warhul

Process of Discovery

  • Borrini found the vampire skull while digging up mass graves on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo.

Thank you!

Matteo Borrini

  • A forensic anthropologist at the Univeristy of Florence.
  • The project leader of the dig that discovered the skull in March 2006.
  • He created a controversy by claiming that the brick signalized an exorcised vampire rather than an accident.

Matteo Borrini on an Archeological Dig

Works Cited

  • Choi, Charles Q. "Vampire Plague Victim Spurs Gruesome Debate." Live Scince. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. 3 Nov. 2016.
  • DellAmore, Christine. ""Vampire of Venice" Unmasked: Plague Victim & Witch?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 26 Feb. 210. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Importance

  • MailOnline, Eddie Wrenn for. "Vampires of Venice: Bricks and Bones Show How Scared the Medieval World Was of the Undead." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 01 June 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.
  • The discovery marked the first time archaeological remains had been interpreted as those of an alleged vampire.
  • This is the first time that archeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of an exorcism of a vampire.

Findings

The Venetian Skull

  • A female skeleton was found in a medieval plague burial site near Venice, Italy.
  • The body was relatively intact considering the rough conditions of its deposition.
  • The corpse was not disjointed at the time of discovery.
  • The women's jaw was forced open by a brick, which was an exorcism technique used on expected vampires in medieval Italy.
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