Anastasia Tsaliki
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT
Originally published in: Journal of Paleopathology (J.o.P.) 11(2) 1999: 116-117
The concept of necrophobia (i.e. fear of the dead returning to haunt the living. Greek word deriving from ‘necros’ = dead + ‘phobos’ = fear) seems to have dominated the burial customs of the Greek world since the Neolithic period to date. It can also be observed to have had a world-wide impact.
Vampirism is a form of necrophobia. Although the word ‘vampire’ most probably has a Slavic origin, debates continue as to its etymological origins. Defined narrowly, a vampire is a bloodsucking ghost or reanimated body of a dead person, coming from the grave and wandering about by night, sucking the blood of the living in order to satisfy its hunger and to perpetuate its existence (Bunson 1993: 262-264). Greece has a long tradition of vampires. Examples of the Greek undead date back to the ancient world with creatures such as the Lamia and the Mormo (Δαβίας 1995: 20, 27). In Homer’s Odyssey (8th century BC) it is clearly stated that the dead like drinking blood (Σιδέρης 1984: κ 511-540, λ 23-50, 90-101). Much later, in Byzantium, Slavic influence in conjunction with the precepts of the Greek Orthodox church form the folklore legends of ‘vrykolakas’ or ‘vourvoulakas’- the undead corpse, restless because of excommunication, suicide, lack of baptism, lycanthropy or witchcraft (Bunson 1993: 112-113).
Beyond legend, observations of a pathological nature in certain individuals may have led to the formation of the vampire folk belief. Palaeopathological examination of skeletal remains of suspected ‘vampires’ coming from ancient sites may shed light on the reason(s) these corpses were treated in a different way (Δαβίας 1995: 11). Forensic pathology proposes that most, if not all, of the beliefs surrounding the vampire can be explained in terms of the folk misconception of what happens to a cadaver after death. Taphonomy also plays an important role here (Barber 1998: 109-142, Uthman 1998). Finally, in the clinical pathological record, conditions producing symptoms which are similar to vampiric attributes include rabies, anthrax, photosensitivity and serious psychological disorders (Gomez-Alonso 1998, Jaffe and Dicataldo 1998, Lutwick 1998, Sledzik and Bellantoni 1994). The vampire origins, ethnography, and behaviour make the legend more complex than mere human imagination.
The material presented here is part of a doctoral research which investigates deviant human disposals through case studies from Greece, with an emphasis on necrophobia. Along with bibliographic research covering a variety of disciplines (archaeology, anthropology, history, folklore and ethnography), human skeletal remains have been studied macroscopically using osteological and palaeopathological methodology and epistemology.
References:
Vampirism is a form of necrophobia. Although the word ‘vampire’ most probably has a Slavic origin, debates continue as to its etymological origins. Defined narrowly, a vampire is a bloodsucking ghost or reanimated body of a dead person, coming from the grave and wandering about by night, sucking the blood of the living in order to satisfy its hunger and to perpetuate its existence (Bunson 1993: 262-264). Greece has a long tradition of vampires. Examples of the Greek undead date back to the ancient world with creatures such as the Lamia and the Mormo (Δαβίας 1995: 20, 27). In Homer’s Odyssey (8th century BC) it is clearly stated that the dead like drinking blood (Σιδέρης 1984: κ 511-540, λ 23-50, 90-101). Much later, in Byzantium, Slavic influence in conjunction with the precepts of the Greek Orthodox church form the folklore legends of ‘vrykolakas’ or ‘vourvoulakas’- the undead corpse, restless because of excommunication, suicide, lack of baptism, lycanthropy or witchcraft (Bunson 1993: 112-113).
Beyond legend, observations of a pathological nature in certain individuals may have led to the formation of the vampire folk belief. Palaeopathological examination of skeletal remains of suspected ‘vampires’ coming from ancient sites may shed light on the reason(s) these corpses were treated in a different way (Δαβίας 1995: 11). Forensic pathology proposes that most, if not all, of the beliefs surrounding the vampire can be explained in terms of the folk misconception of what happens to a cadaver after death. Taphonomy also plays an important role here (Barber 1998: 109-142, Uthman 1998). Finally, in the clinical pathological record, conditions producing symptoms which are similar to vampiric attributes include rabies, anthrax, photosensitivity and serious psychological disorders (Gomez-Alonso 1998, Jaffe and Dicataldo 1998, Lutwick 1998, Sledzik and Bellantoni 1994). The vampire origins, ethnography, and behaviour make the legend more complex than mere human imagination.
The material presented here is part of a doctoral research which investigates deviant human disposals through case studies from Greece, with an emphasis on necrophobia. Along with bibliographic research covering a variety of disciplines (archaeology, anthropology, history, folklore and ethnography), human skeletal remains have been studied macroscopically using osteological and palaeopathological methodology and epistemology.
References:
1. Barber P. (1998) Forensic Pathology and the European Vampire, in Dundes A. (ed.) The Vampire: A casebook, The University of Wisconsin Press: Wisconsin, pp. 109-142
2. Bunson M. (1993) Vampire, the Encyclopaedia, Thames and Hudson: London
3. Gomez-Alonso J. (1998) Rabies: A possible explanation for the Vampire Legend, Neurology 51 (3): 856-859
4. Jaffe P. D. and Dicataldo F. (1998) Clinical Vampirism: Blending Myth and Reality, in Dundes A. (ed.) The Vampire: A casebook, The University of Wisconsin Press: Wisconsin, pp. 143-158
5. Lutwick L. I. (1998) G-Docs and X-files, Infect Med 115 (3): 165-167, 210
6. Sledzic P. and Bellantoni N. (1994) Brief Communication: Bioarchaeological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief, AJPA 94: 269-274
9. Σιδέρης Ζ. (μτφρ.) (1984) Ομήρου Οδύσσεια, ΟΕΔΒ: Αθήνα
2. Bunson M. (1993) Vampire, the Encyclopaedia, Thames and Hudson: London
3. Gomez-Alonso J. (1998) Rabies: A possible explanation for the Vampire Legend, Neurology 51 (3): 856-859
4. Jaffe P. D. and Dicataldo F. (1998) Clinical Vampirism: Blending Myth and Reality, in Dundes A. (ed.) The Vampire: A casebook, The University of Wisconsin Press: Wisconsin, pp. 143-158
5. Lutwick L. I. (1998) G-Docs and X-files, Infect Med 115 (3): 165-167, 210
6. Sledzic P. and Bellantoni N. (1994) Brief Communication: Bioarchaeological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief, AJPA 94: 269-274
7. Uthman Ed (1998) Forensic Pathology, URL: wysiwyg://37/http://www.neosoft.com/~uthman/forensic_pathology.html, Date visited: 21 June 2000
8. Δαβίας Ο. (ed.) (1995) Μόνταγκ Σάμμερς: Ο Ελλην Βρυκόλαξ, εκδ. Δελφίνι: Αθήνα9. Σιδέρης Ζ. (μτφρ.) (1984) Ομήρου Οδύσσεια, ΟΕΔΒ: Αθήνα
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PAPER
This paper was originally published in and should be referenced as:
Tsaliki A. (2001) Vampires Beyond Legend: A Bioarchaeological Approach. In M. La Verghetta and L. Capasso (eds.), Proceedings of the XIII European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Chieti, Italy, 18-23 Sept. 2000, Edigrafital S.p.A: Teramo- Italy, 295-300.
Tsaliki A. (2001) Vampires Beyond Legend: A Bioarchaeological Approach. In M. La Verghetta and L. Capasso (eds.), Proceedings of the XIII European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Chieti, Italy, 18-23 Sept. 2000, Edigrafital S.p.A: Teramo- Italy, 295-300.
‘VAMPIRES BEYOND LEGEND: A BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACH’
Anastasia Tsaliki
Anastasia Tsaliki
The concept of necrophobia (i.e. fear of the dead returning to haunt the living. A Greek word deriving from ‘necros’ = dead + ‘phovos’ = fear) seems to have dominated the burial customs of the Greek world since the Neolithic period to date. It can also be observed to have had a world-wide impact. Vampirism is a form of necrophobia.
The nature of vampire and of its Greek species vrykolakas is examined, as they appear in folk beliefs, especially in Greece and the Balkan area. Theories of a possible realistic explanation of the vampire lore are put forward, deriving mainly from the disciplines of clinical and forensic pathology. Finally, cases of ‘vampiric’ fear in the archaeological record are described.
The material presented here is part of the author’s doctoral research entitled ‘An investigation of extraordinary human body disposals, with special reference to necrophobia’. This research is multidisciplinary, based mainly on the principles and methodology of Archaeology and Bioanthropology.
This paper is limited to the investigation of the vampire lore and reality. A thorough bibliographic research has been performed including folklore, literary and medical texts.
The Vampire folklore
The word ‘vampire’ (less commonly ‘vampir’, ‘vampyre’) most probably has a Slavic origin, but debates continue as to its etymological origins: Turkish, Greek and Hungarian roots have been suggested as alternatives (Bunson 1993).
Defined narrowly, a vampire is a reanimated corpse coming from the grave, wandering about by night and sucking the blood of the living in order to satisfy its hunger and to perpetuate its existence. There are many theories regarding the origin of this revenant (= ‘returning from the dead’) creature. Bloodsuckers, divine or semidivine, were an integral part of many ancient cults in both the Old and New World. Among the best examples is Kali in India, Zotzilaha (Bat-god of the Mayans) and the God Huitzilopochtli of the Aztecs. In the latter cases the vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) may have been an influence. Blood, a living force, and earth, the giver of life and food, were strongly linked (Bunson 1993, Davias 1995).
In a broader sense, the word 'vampire' or 'undead' or 'revenant' is used for the reanimated corpse by a demon, who seeks to hurt the living. It does not necessarily drink blood but can feed on other liquids such as milk or oil, or solid food. The vampire belief is expanded in many countries all over the world and there are many different vampiric species. Vampires are said to be able to transform into bats, birds, rats, wolves, flies and fleas. As was the case with witchcraft, the Christian church related the vampires to the devil (as above, and Politis 1904).
Greece has a long tradition of vampires. Examples of the Greek undead date back to the ancient world with creatures such as the Efialtae, the Striges, the Lamiae, the Empoussai, the Epopidae, the Yello and the Mormo. In Homer’s Odyssey (8th century BC) it is clearly stated that the dead like drinking blood (Davias 1995). There also existed special festivals in the honor of the dead, the Anthesteria, and in Roman times the Lemuria. Later, under the Christian influence and the curse of excommunication (in the Greek Church it involves cursing the body not to dissolve), various regional words were applied to the revenant corpses, as the word vampire was still unknown. Therefore, several studies prove that rich autochthonous traditions of the undead existed long ago (Politis 1904). In Byzantium, Slavic influence, in conjunction with the precepts of the Greek Orthodox Church, form the legend of a Greek vampire species called ‘vrykolakas’, the Slavic word for werewolf. The word became directly associated with vampires out of the belief that all werewolves would become vampires after death (Bunson 1993, Davias 1995). The presence of vampires also exists in Medieval Greek texts, novels, manuscripts, ecclesiastic laws, exorcisms, and folk songs (Mouzakis 1989).
Vampires Beyond Legend
Beyond legend, observations of a pathological nature in certain individuals may have led, or at least contributed, to the formation of the vampire folk belief. In order to understand the explanations put forward, a review of some basic traits associated with vampires is necessary:
• Predispositions to become a vampire: curse, excommunication, death without baptism, red hair, death by suicide, witchcraft, immoral life, lycanthropy, killed by a vampire, no burial or improper burial rites, violent death, unrevenged murder, death by drowning, heresy, physical disability.
• Means of destroying vampires: staking, beheading, cremation, piercing the bloated corpse, extracting the heart / liver /intestines, cutting into pieces, touching with an icon and/or holy water.
• Means of preventing the ‘turning’ to a vampire: proper burial, mutilate the corpse, pounding nails into various body parts, putting sickles, daggers, knives, stakes, nails, thorns in the coffin to prevent bloating (thus transformation), bind the corpse, decapitation and placing of the head between the legs.
• Features associated with vampires: holes near the grave, disturbed grave, corpse bloated, with open eyes, long hair and nails, skin colour change, pallor, lack of decomposition, blood around the mouth, open mouth, adherence to the sacraments, fear and incapability of passing across water. A possible victim has red eyes, paleness, aversion to bright light, no appetite, weight loss, insomnia, nightmares, anaemia, exhaustion, difficulty in breathing, nervousness and irritability, blood coughing (Bunson 1993, Mouzakis 1989).
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY (FP) deals with the postmortem investigation of sudden and unexpected death. It is therefore possible to determine the cause of death, its mechanisms and manners, and especially the normal postmortem changes (Uthman 1998). FP proposes that most, if not all, of the beliefs surrounding the vampire can be explained in terms of the folk misconception of what happens to a cadaver after death. The ‘intact, bloated, fat, pale or reddish corpse’, the blood at the lips and nose, the noises heard from the grave, are all signs of decomposition. It can be a longer process than people may think and rigor mortis is a temporary condition, not a permanent one, so there may be some sudden movement of the body. Against popular belief that the nails and hair keep growing after death, this is a misconception of the fact that the skin shrinks back after death. The process of decomposition generates heat, so the corpse may appear warm. The swelling of the body, which sometimes is extreme, is mainly the reason why the corpse is pinned, tied or weighed down in its grave, and the vampire is often killed by piercing. According to tradition, the revenant cannot cross water, and this tradition may be based on the fact that due to the extreme swelling, the body will emerge and float (Barber 1998).
TAPHONOMY also plays an important role in the legend interpretation. Quick and shallow burials, often in the case of criminals, murder victims and suicides, and in periods of epidemics, led to the body becoming partly uncovered during the swelling phase of the decomposition. Improper cemetery geomorphology, together with quickly successive burials and crowded conditions, lead to lack of water and oxygen coming in contact with the corpse, delaying its decay. In addition, high use of drugs and synthetic fabrics inhibit normal decomposition (Mouzakis 1989).
Finally, in the CLINICAL PATHOLOGICAL RECORD, several conditions produce symptoms, which are similar to vampiric attributes. These include (Lutwick 1998, Roberts and Manchester 1997, Youngson 1992):
• Tuberculosis: Very contagious ‘crowd disease’. Pulmonary TB causes fever, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight, and persistent cough with blood-spotted sputum.
• Other respiratory diseases, e.g. Bronchitis, Pneumoconiosis and Anthracosis (a common pneumoconiosis. Chronic lung disease from repeated inhalation of coal dust).
• Anthrax: Caused by Bacillus anthracis by inhaling field dust or by penetrating the skin. Symptoms: fatigue, muscle aches, cough, low fever, dyspnoea, and tachycardia. It is an occupational disease of animal handlers, acute and commonly fatal, as it causes bronchopneumonia and septicaemia.
• Rabies in humans: loss of appetite, fever and fatigue, insomnia, tendency to wander, dementia, muscle spasms, aggression, violence, biting attacks, agitation, blood vomiting. Bright light, water, strong odours, and mirrors can trigger spasms. Death from rabies can leave blood in a liquid state long after death (Gomez-Alonso 1998).
• Photophobia: Intolerance to light. Feature of certain eye disorders, migraine and meningitis.
•
Porphyria: a group of inherited disorders causing extreme sensitivity to sunlight, sweating, tachycardia, abdominal pain, vomiting, skin blistering, scarring on exposure to sunlight, and psychotic disorders.
• Photosensitivity: skin rash due to sunlight, drugs or other chemicals.
• Necrophania (= apparent death), leading to premature burial.
• Psychological / mental disorders: A serious, although rare mental disorder is ‘clinical vampirism’, a penchant of disturbed patients to drink blood, sometimes their own; the activity is then termed ‘autovampirism’. It groups some of the most shocking pathologic behaviors observed in humans: necrophagism /cannibalism, necrophilia and necrosadism. Clinical vampirism manifestations blend myth and reality in a dramatic fashion and contain a mixture of nosological elements, including schizophrenia, psychopathy, perversion, paranoia and borderline personality (Jaffe and Dicataldo 1998, Mouzakis 1989, Youngson 1992).
Vampires were believed to attack close family first, at night. Thinking of contagious diseases, it is easier to understand why close relatives are at high risk. In addition, there have been a number of clinical vampires registered through history, since the 15th century (Bunson 1993).
The Vampire in the archaeological record
The concept of this research was formed in 1995 while reading an article on the New England Vampire Folk Belief (Sledzik and Bellantoni 1994). When the tomb of a 19th c. individual, thought to be a vampire, was opened and the femora were found crossed on top of the thorax, the researchers combined archaeological, cultural and historical evidence with osteological and palaeopathological examination in order to interpret this extraordinary case. they concluded that the observed periostitic rib lesions of the skeleton might be associated with pulmonary tuberculosis. As the name ‘consumption’ implies, tuberculosis causes sufferers to ‘waste away’ and ‘lose flesh’. The vampire legend became reality: from the sphere of folk belief it passed on to the archaeological record with hard evidence.
Some of the earliest probable examples of fear of the ‘revenants’ come from Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus (circa 7000-2500 BC). Individuals were often buried in a small shallow pit, in a contracted position with the knees bent against the chest. A quern or slabs, or multiple smaller rocks, were put on the chest or on the head to prevent the dead from returning and harming the living. The wedging of the head with lumps of pisé (construction material) or pebbles has been recorded, as well as possible cases of decapitation. Similar practises have been performed in the Levant, such as the separation of the skull and its public display (Karageorghis 1965). A similar custom is seen in a Middle Helladic grave from the Argolid (Greece, circa 1900-1600 BC): a large rock is placed over the flexed skeleton in a stone-built cist grave (Nordquist 1990). A rock is present on the body of an infant skeleton from Soba, Sudan, 6th to 13th century AD according to Filer (1995).
In Greece, a case from Byzantine Chalkidiki is that of a small individual found in situ with a big bronze wedge nailed into the forehead. On the island of Mytilene, in a Turkish cemetery from the period of the Ottoman occupation (circa 18th-19th c.), the Greek and Canadian teams found the somewhat isolated tomb of an adult. The individual was nailed at the neck, the pelvis and the tali with 20 cm nails. This case is of particular interest, as vampirism is not a common belief among Muslims (Davias 1995). Finally, during salvage excavations at the castle of Lamia, the skull of a skeleton was nailed with three big iron nails. Two more nails were found around the shoulder area (Papakonstantinou-Katsouni 1995).
Conclusions
The cultural analysis of vampires, and especially their Greek form, stresses the antiquity of the phenomenon and the plethora of literary evidence. It becomes obvious that necrophobia, leading to deviant burials, has existed in Greece and it can be examined from both an archaeological and bioanthropological perspective. The contributions to a rational explanation of vampirism, vampire origins, ethnography, and behaviour, take it beyond the sphere of mere imagination.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the many Greek Archaeological Ephorates and Prof. H. Williams who contributed with information and permissions for study of ‘vampire’ burial cases. Finally, I also wish to thank the Bioanthropology Foundation, the P. Bakala Bros. Foundation and the Durham University ‘Dean’s Fund’ for financial support.
References
1. Barber P. (1998) Forensic Pathology and the European Vampire, in Dundes A. (ed.) The Vampire: A casebook, The University of Wisconsin Press: Wisconsin, pp. 109-142
2. Bunson M. (1993) Vampire, the Encyclopaedia, Thames and Hudson: London
3. Davias O. (ed.) (1995) Montague Summers: O Ellin Vrykolax, ekd. Delfini: Athina
4. Filer J. (1995) Disease, Trustees of the British Museum: London
5. Gomez-Alonso J (1998) Rabies: a Possible Explanation for the Vampire Legend, Neurology 51: 856-859.
6. Jaffe P. D. and Dicataldo F. (1998) Clinical Vampirism: Blending Myth and Reality, in Dundes A. (ed.) The Vampire: A casebook, The University of Wisconsin Press: Wisconsin, pp. 143-158
7. Karageorghis V. (1982) Cyprus, from the Stone Age to the Romans, Thames and Hudson: London
8. Lutwick L. I. (1998) G-Docs and X-files, Infect Med 115(3): 165-167, 210
9. Mouzakis S. (1989) Oi Vrykolakes stous Vyzantinous kai Metavyzantinous Nomokanones kai stis paradoseis tou Ellinikou laou, Vivliopoleio twn Vivliofilwn: Athina
10. Nordquist G. C. (1990) Middle Helladic Burial Rites: Some speculations, in Hagg R. and Nordquist G.C. (eds.) Celebrations of Death and Divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid, Acta Instituti Atheniensis regni Sueciae Series 4, XL, pp. 35-43
11. Papakonstantinou-Katsouni M. (1995), Kastro Lamias, ID’ EPKA, Anatypo, Arxaiologikon Deltion 44 (1989), Xronika, Athina, pp. 164-165
12. Politis N. (1904) Paradoseis, Tomos A’, Athina, pp. 491-506, 573-608
13. Roberts C. A. and Manchester K. (1997) The Archaeology of disease (2nd ed.), Sutton publishing ltd.: Ithaca- New York
14. Sledzic P. and Bellantoni N. (1994) Brief Communication: Bioarchaeological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief, American Journal of Phys. Anthropology 94: 269-274
The nature of vampire and of its Greek species vrykolakas is examined, as they appear in folk beliefs, especially in Greece and the Balkan area. Theories of a possible realistic explanation of the vampire lore are put forward, deriving mainly from the disciplines of clinical and forensic pathology. Finally, cases of ‘vampiric’ fear in the archaeological record are described.
The material presented here is part of the author’s doctoral research entitled ‘An investigation of extraordinary human body disposals, with special reference to necrophobia’. This research is multidisciplinary, based mainly on the principles and methodology of Archaeology and Bioanthropology.
This paper is limited to the investigation of the vampire lore and reality. A thorough bibliographic research has been performed including folklore, literary and medical texts.
The Vampire folklore
The word ‘vampire’ (less commonly ‘vampir’, ‘vampyre’) most probably has a Slavic origin, but debates continue as to its etymological origins: Turkish, Greek and Hungarian roots have been suggested as alternatives (Bunson 1993).
Defined narrowly, a vampire is a reanimated corpse coming from the grave, wandering about by night and sucking the blood of the living in order to satisfy its hunger and to perpetuate its existence. There are many theories regarding the origin of this revenant (= ‘returning from the dead’) creature. Bloodsuckers, divine or semidivine, were an integral part of many ancient cults in both the Old and New World. Among the best examples is Kali in India, Zotzilaha (Bat-god of the Mayans) and the God Huitzilopochtli of the Aztecs. In the latter cases the vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) may have been an influence. Blood, a living force, and earth, the giver of life and food, were strongly linked (Bunson 1993, Davias 1995).
In a broader sense, the word 'vampire' or 'undead' or 'revenant' is used for the reanimated corpse by a demon, who seeks to hurt the living. It does not necessarily drink blood but can feed on other liquids such as milk or oil, or solid food. The vampire belief is expanded in many countries all over the world and there are many different vampiric species. Vampires are said to be able to transform into bats, birds, rats, wolves, flies and fleas. As was the case with witchcraft, the Christian church related the vampires to the devil (as above, and Politis 1904).
Greece has a long tradition of vampires. Examples of the Greek undead date back to the ancient world with creatures such as the Efialtae, the Striges, the Lamiae, the Empoussai, the Epopidae, the Yello and the Mormo. In Homer’s Odyssey (8th century BC) it is clearly stated that the dead like drinking blood (Davias 1995). There also existed special festivals in the honor of the dead, the Anthesteria, and in Roman times the Lemuria. Later, under the Christian influence and the curse of excommunication (in the Greek Church it involves cursing the body not to dissolve), various regional words were applied to the revenant corpses, as the word vampire was still unknown. Therefore, several studies prove that rich autochthonous traditions of the undead existed long ago (Politis 1904). In Byzantium, Slavic influence, in conjunction with the precepts of the Greek Orthodox Church, form the legend of a Greek vampire species called ‘vrykolakas’, the Slavic word for werewolf. The word became directly associated with vampires out of the belief that all werewolves would become vampires after death (Bunson 1993, Davias 1995). The presence of vampires also exists in Medieval Greek texts, novels, manuscripts, ecclesiastic laws, exorcisms, and folk songs (Mouzakis 1989).
Vampires Beyond Legend
Beyond legend, observations of a pathological nature in certain individuals may have led, or at least contributed, to the formation of the vampire folk belief. In order to understand the explanations put forward, a review of some basic traits associated with vampires is necessary:
• Predispositions to become a vampire: curse, excommunication, death without baptism, red hair, death by suicide, witchcraft, immoral life, lycanthropy, killed by a vampire, no burial or improper burial rites, violent death, unrevenged murder, death by drowning, heresy, physical disability.
• Means of destroying vampires: staking, beheading, cremation, piercing the bloated corpse, extracting the heart / liver /intestines, cutting into pieces, touching with an icon and/or holy water.
• Means of preventing the ‘turning’ to a vampire: proper burial, mutilate the corpse, pounding nails into various body parts, putting sickles, daggers, knives, stakes, nails, thorns in the coffin to prevent bloating (thus transformation), bind the corpse, decapitation and placing of the head between the legs.
• Features associated with vampires: holes near the grave, disturbed grave, corpse bloated, with open eyes, long hair and nails, skin colour change, pallor, lack of decomposition, blood around the mouth, open mouth, adherence to the sacraments, fear and incapability of passing across water. A possible victim has red eyes, paleness, aversion to bright light, no appetite, weight loss, insomnia, nightmares, anaemia, exhaustion, difficulty in breathing, nervousness and irritability, blood coughing (Bunson 1993, Mouzakis 1989).
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY (FP) deals with the postmortem investigation of sudden and unexpected death. It is therefore possible to determine the cause of death, its mechanisms and manners, and especially the normal postmortem changes (Uthman 1998). FP proposes that most, if not all, of the beliefs surrounding the vampire can be explained in terms of the folk misconception of what happens to a cadaver after death. The ‘intact, bloated, fat, pale or reddish corpse’, the blood at the lips and nose, the noises heard from the grave, are all signs of decomposition. It can be a longer process than people may think and rigor mortis is a temporary condition, not a permanent one, so there may be some sudden movement of the body. Against popular belief that the nails and hair keep growing after death, this is a misconception of the fact that the skin shrinks back after death. The process of decomposition generates heat, so the corpse may appear warm. The swelling of the body, which sometimes is extreme, is mainly the reason why the corpse is pinned, tied or weighed down in its grave, and the vampire is often killed by piercing. According to tradition, the revenant cannot cross water, and this tradition may be based on the fact that due to the extreme swelling, the body will emerge and float (Barber 1998).
TAPHONOMY also plays an important role in the legend interpretation. Quick and shallow burials, often in the case of criminals, murder victims and suicides, and in periods of epidemics, led to the body becoming partly uncovered during the swelling phase of the decomposition. Improper cemetery geomorphology, together with quickly successive burials and crowded conditions, lead to lack of water and oxygen coming in contact with the corpse, delaying its decay. In addition, high use of drugs and synthetic fabrics inhibit normal decomposition (Mouzakis 1989).
Finally, in the CLINICAL PATHOLOGICAL RECORD, several conditions produce symptoms, which are similar to vampiric attributes. These include (Lutwick 1998, Roberts and Manchester 1997, Youngson 1992):
• Tuberculosis: Very contagious ‘crowd disease’. Pulmonary TB causes fever, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight, and persistent cough with blood-spotted sputum.
• Other respiratory diseases, e.g. Bronchitis, Pneumoconiosis and Anthracosis (a common pneumoconiosis. Chronic lung disease from repeated inhalation of coal dust).
• Anthrax: Caused by Bacillus anthracis by inhaling field dust or by penetrating the skin. Symptoms: fatigue, muscle aches, cough, low fever, dyspnoea, and tachycardia. It is an occupational disease of animal handlers, acute and commonly fatal, as it causes bronchopneumonia and septicaemia.
• Rabies in humans: loss of appetite, fever and fatigue, insomnia, tendency to wander, dementia, muscle spasms, aggression, violence, biting attacks, agitation, blood vomiting. Bright light, water, strong odours, and mirrors can trigger spasms. Death from rabies can leave blood in a liquid state long after death (Gomez-Alonso 1998).
• Photophobia: Intolerance to light. Feature of certain eye disorders, migraine and meningitis.
•
Porphyria: a group of inherited disorders causing extreme sensitivity to sunlight, sweating, tachycardia, abdominal pain, vomiting, skin blistering, scarring on exposure to sunlight, and psychotic disorders.• Photosensitivity: skin rash due to sunlight, drugs or other chemicals.
• Necrophania (= apparent death), leading to premature burial.
• Psychological / mental disorders: A serious, although rare mental disorder is ‘clinical vampirism’, a penchant of disturbed patients to drink blood, sometimes their own; the activity is then termed ‘autovampirism’. It groups some of the most shocking pathologic behaviors observed in humans: necrophagism /cannibalism, necrophilia and necrosadism. Clinical vampirism manifestations blend myth and reality in a dramatic fashion and contain a mixture of nosological elements, including schizophrenia, psychopathy, perversion, paranoia and borderline personality (Jaffe and Dicataldo 1998, Mouzakis 1989, Youngson 1992).
Vampires were believed to attack close family first, at night. Thinking of contagious diseases, it is easier to understand why close relatives are at high risk. In addition, there have been a number of clinical vampires registered through history, since the 15th century (Bunson 1993).
The Vampire in the archaeological record
The concept of this research was formed in 1995 while reading an article on the New England Vampire Folk Belief (Sledzik and Bellantoni 1994). When the tomb of a 19th c. individual, thought to be a vampire, was opened and the femora were found crossed on top of the thorax, the researchers combined archaeological, cultural and historical evidence with osteological and palaeopathological examination in order to interpret this extraordinary case. they concluded that the observed periostitic rib lesions of the skeleton might be associated with pulmonary tuberculosis. As the name ‘consumption’ implies, tuberculosis causes sufferers to ‘waste away’ and ‘lose flesh’. The vampire legend became reality: from the sphere of folk belief it passed on to the archaeological record with hard evidence.
Some of the earliest probable examples of fear of the ‘revenants’ come from Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus (circa 7000-2500 BC). Individuals were often buried in a small shallow pit, in a contracted position with the knees bent against the chest. A quern or slabs, or multiple smaller rocks, were put on the chest or on the head to prevent the dead from returning and harming the living. The wedging of the head with lumps of pisé (construction material) or pebbles has been recorded, as well as possible cases of decapitation. Similar practises have been performed in the Levant, such as the separation of the skull and its public display (Karageorghis 1965). A similar custom is seen in a Middle Helladic grave from the Argolid (Greece, circa 1900-1600 BC): a large rock is placed over the flexed skeleton in a stone-built cist grave (Nordquist 1990). A rock is present on the body of an infant skeleton from Soba, Sudan, 6th to 13th century AD according to Filer (1995).
In Greece, a case from Byzantine Chalkidiki is that of a small individual found in situ with a big bronze wedge nailed into the forehead. On the island of Mytilene, in a Turkish cemetery from the period of the Ottoman occupation (circa 18th-19th c.), the Greek and Canadian teams found the somewhat isolated tomb of an adult. The individual was nailed at the neck, the pelvis and the tali with 20 cm nails. This case is of particular interest, as vampirism is not a common belief among Muslims (Davias 1995). Finally, during salvage excavations at the castle of Lamia, the skull of a skeleton was nailed with three big iron nails. Two more nails were found around the shoulder area (Papakonstantinou-Katsouni 1995).
Conclusions
The cultural analysis of vampires, and especially their Greek form, stresses the antiquity of the phenomenon and the plethora of literary evidence. It becomes obvious that necrophobia, leading to deviant burials, has existed in Greece and it can be examined from both an archaeological and bioanthropological perspective. The contributions to a rational explanation of vampirism, vampire origins, ethnography, and behaviour, take it beyond the sphere of mere imagination.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the many Greek Archaeological Ephorates and Prof. H. Williams who contributed with information and permissions for study of ‘vampire’ burial cases. Finally, I also wish to thank the Bioanthropology Foundation, the P. Bakala Bros. Foundation and the Durham University ‘Dean’s Fund’ for financial support.
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