이탈리아에서 1550년 전 10살짜리 뱀파이어 무덤 발견 Child 'Vampire' Was Buried 1,550 Years Ago in Italy
Child 'Vampire' Was Buried 1,550 Years Ago in Italy
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor
A 1,550-year-old "vampire burial" of a child with a rock stuffed into his or her mouth has been discovered in an ancient cemetery in Lugnano, Italy.
The 10-year-old has a rock stuffed in the mouth, something that may have been done to prevent the child from rising from the grave and spreading malaria to other people.
Credit: David Pickel/Stanford University
이탈리아에서 1550년 전 10살짜리 뱀파이어 무덤 발견 입안에 돌 채워져...말라리아 전염 방지 입에 돌이 채워진 1550년 전 아이의 뱀파이어 무덤이 이탈리아 루그나노의 고대 공동묘지에서 발견됐다. 이 10살짜리 아이는 입 안에 돌들이 채워져 있는데, 이것은 아이가 무덤에서 일어나 다른 사람들에게 말라리아를 퍼트리는 것을 막기 위해 한 행동일 수도 있다. 10월 아리조나 대학의 한 연구팀은 말라리아로 사망했을 가능성이 있는 아이를 묻었던 사람들이 이 바위를 사용하여 무덤에서 다른 사람들에게 질병을 퍼뜨리는 것을 막을 수 있었다고 발표했다. "이런 건 처음 봐요. 이것은 매우 섬뜩하고 기괴합니다," 라고 1987년부터 묘지에서 고고학적 발굴을 감독해온 애리조나 대학의 인류학 교수 데이비드 소렌이 말했다. 현지에서는 이 무덤을 '루그나노 뱀파이어'라고 부른다. 황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터 큐레이터 Ki Cheol Hwang, conpaper editor, curator |
edited by kcontents
Those who buried the child, who possibly died of malaria, may have used the rock to prevent him or her (the child's sex isn't known) from rising from the grave and spreading disease to other people, said a team of researchers in a statement released Oct. 12 by the University of Arizona.
"I've never seen anything like it. It's extremely eerie and weird," said David Soren, an anthropology professor at the University of Arizona, who has overseen archaeological excavations at the cemetery since 1987. "Locally, they're calling it the 'Vampire of Lugnano.'" [7 Strange Ways Humans Act Like Vampires]
Other bizarre remains have been discovered at this cemetery, called La Necropoli dei Bambini, or the Cemetery of the Babies,including the skeletons of babies and toddlers found buried beside raven talons, toad bones and bronze cauldrons filled with the remains of sacrificed puppies. In one case, the skeleton of a 3-year-old girl at the cemetery was found with stones holding down her hands and feet, the researchers said.
A 1,550-year-old “vampire burial” of a 10-year-old child was discovered in Italy.
Credit: David Pickel/Stanford University
In fact, until now, the oldest person found buried at the cemetery was the 3-year-old, and archaeologists assumed the grounds had been reserved for infants and toddlers.
"There are still sections of the cemetery that we haven't excavated yet, so we don't know if we'll find other older kids," bioarcheologist Jordan Wilson, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Arizona who analyzed the bones in Italy, said in the statement.
The cemetery was erected during the fifth century, within a first-century Roman villa. During the fifth century, a deadly malaria outbreak swept through the area, the archaeologists noted.
Rising from the dead?
The researchers said they suspect the child died of malaria, even though DNA testing hasn't been conducted on the child's remains. Other children buried in the cemetery are known to have died of malaria, and this child has an abscessed tooth, which is a side effect of malaria, the researchers said.
Someone would have stuffed this rock into the mouth of the 10-year-old after death.
Credit: David Pickel/Stanford University
"We know that the Romans were very much concerned with this [the spread of disease] and would even go to the extent of employing witchcraft to keep the evil — whatever is contaminating the body — from coming out," Soren said, adding that in this case the "evil" may have been malaria.
The researchers will continue excavations at Lugnano next summer.
Other vampire burials have been discovered in the past in Italy and in Poland. An 18th-century example of one such possible burial was discovered recently at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Byszewo, Poland, reported Sebastian Nowak, a researcher at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. Nowak described the finding at the European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting held in September in Barcelona, Spain.
Originally published on Live Science.
https://www.livescience.com/63824-child-vampire-burial-italy.html?utm_source=notification
