User:Jesskep/Southwell Vampire

The Southwell Vampire is a name given to a human skeleton that was discovered in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England in 1959. The remains have been identified as those of a possible vampire because the body was buried with iron spikes through its shoulders, chest, and ankles. The remains have been dated to the Early Middle Ages, ca. AD 550–700.

Discovery

The remains were discovered during excavations of a series of trenches at the Church Street site in Southwell in preparation for a new school. Close to 250 other human burials were also found at this location. Most of the burials are Christian, buried east to west. The "vampire" burial was the only apparently deviant or unusual one discovered. The remains were discovered outside the limits of the churchyard, which led excavator Charles Daniels to conclude that they did not belong to a normal Christian burial.

The remains were left exactly where they were found in situ. No samples for radiocarbon dating were obtained, so there is no exact date for the burial. Daniels discovered a piece of pottery dated AD 550 AD near the burial. This date, and the fact that Anglo-Saxon deviant burials are rare after 700 AD, led Daniels to date the skeleton to AD 550 – 700.

History of Site

The Church Street site was first considered significant after remains of a Roman villa were discovered in 1787. More evidence of the villa, including several rooms, accompanied the 1959 excavations led by Daniels. Remains of a wall most likely dating to the 2nd century were discovered as well as pieces of pottery and a few mosaic floors dating to as early as the 3rd or 4th century. Additional information revealing an early Saxon church and cemetery. Hundreds of skeletal remains were found in almost two dozen trenches at the site.

Deviant Burials

The belief that the soul could leave the body at night through the mouth while a person is sleeping comes from folkloric practices in Eastern Europe. People imagined that the spirit of the dead could return and bring a corpse back to life. These beliefs led to several practices to reassure that harmful social deviants could not return to cause torment. One of the most common ways to prevent this was to place a rock over the mouth to close the opening and keep the soul from leaving. Other ways include placing stakes through the body, burying the dead face down, placing large rocks on the body to hold it down, laying nails with the body, driving the nails into the body, cremation, and decapitation. These types of burials were not just reserved for what people thought to be vampires but also murderers and felons, adulterers, and those who died of plagues or other illnesses.

Similar Discoveries

The Southwell Vampire is not the only type of deviant burial to be discovered in Europe. Others are discussed in Anglo-Saxon Deviant Burial Customs by archaeologist Andrew Reynolds. Most of the remains have been found in Eastern Europe but they are spread all throughout the continent. An Iron Age body, known as Old Croghan Man, was discovered in Ireland in 2003 with rods shoved through the upper arms. Even one of the bodies discovered at Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic had been staked to the ground. Several bodies on the Greek island of Lesbos have been found with iron stakes through limbs or buried alongside the corpse. Bulgaria has also produced hundreds of 'vampire' burials with two recent discoveries that had iron rods pierced through their chest.