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Who were the Slavic vampires? -

Slavic vampire beliefs have reportedly been around since the 4th century AD. These creatures were essentially ghosts of dead people. Though they could also turn into living dead creatures (i.e. zombies).

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Dracula, Nosferatu, and other blood-sucking monsters - Vampires were portrayed very differently in Western culture. These were more akin to personified bats than the vampires in Slavic folklore.

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Who did they attack? -

Slavic vampires would supposedly attack their own family and household animals.

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How did they do it? -

According to folklore, they would drink their blood, eat their flesh, or stifle them.

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How did a person become a vampire? - Legend has it that a future vampire was born with two souls. This could be "cured" through baptism with holy water.

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Another possibility - Another version is that any person born with two hearts, additional teeth, or with a unibrow, was potentially a vampire.

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Yet another version -

But there's more. They also believed that people who died a sudden, unexpected death would become vampires. This was particularly true for those who took their own lives. 

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The root of evil -

Slavic people essentially believed that an evil person would always remain evil, even after death.

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Vampire hunters - Iron nails, iron rods, and wooden pegs were commonly used to kill suspected vampires.

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How to bury a vampire -

According to Slavic folklore, there's a whole ritual to make sure that a vampire doesn't come back from the dead.

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Facing flowers - The corpse was buried with its face down and poppy seeds were placed in the coffin.

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Killing the dead - A sharp tool like a sickle or a scythe was placed over the neck to prevent the vampire from rising without being decapitated.

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Pain in death - A pebble or coin was placed under the corpse's tongue and its hands were tied behind the back. Feet were mutilated and the sinews in the legs were cut to prevent it from rising.

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Out of reach - They were also sometimes decapitated, and their heads would be placed between their legs so that they wouldn't be able to reach it.

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Spikes and rocks - Spikes were put in the tongue, most likely to prevent the vampire from sucking blood. The body would be buried deep and then covered with rocks.

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Anti-vampire graves -

In 2013, a number of anti-vampire graves were discovered in a construction site near Gliwice in Poland.

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Anti-vampire graves - In 2012, Bulgarian archaeologists found two skeletons with iron rods piercing their chests.

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Anti-vampire graves -

Fourteen anti-vampire graves were also discovered in a medieval cemetery in Kałdus, Poland.

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Anti-vampire graves - Skeletons were also unearthed in Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland.

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Drawsko study - A 2014 study by American researchers suggested the people buried in Drawsko died of cholera.

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Drawsko vampires - It' suggested that there was a belief that these people could come back from the dead as vampires and bring the deadly disease with them.

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The Hassal Grave -

Legend has it that a grave at Malew Churchyard on the Isle of Man belongs to a vampire.

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Italian vampire -

A skull of a woman was found in Lazzaretto Nuovo, Italy, in a mass grave used for plague victims. Her jaw was forced open by a brick - a practice sometimes used in burials of suspected vampires. 

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Pre-historic vampire beliefs -

Polish ethnologist Kazimierz Moszyński puts forward the hypothesis that vampirism dates back to pre-historic times. He argues that some of the perforated skulls found by pre-historians could have actually been pierced through with wooden pegs, which would have then subsequently rotted.

Sources: (Journals) (Live Science)

See also: Terrifying urban legends that are actually true.

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