Archaeologists have found the burial place of the living dead (4 photos)

In a cemetery in central Italy, researchers have found the remains of children whose bodies were crushed by stones. According to scientists, this was done to prevent them from rising from the dead.










Archaeologists during excavations in Italy discovered a burial ground 1600 years old, containing the remains of infants, children and those brought to puppy sacrifice. Some of the burials have unusual ominous peculiarities. For example, many children were buried with gag in their mouths. or crushed by stones. According to scientists, this indicates the fear of local residents before the fact that buried corpses can come to life after death. Analysis of the burials indicates that many of the deceased were sick malaria.

In 2018, researchers suggested that children might considered vampires, but a new study has shown the inconsistency of this points of view. The idea that one child buried here is a vampire, originated among the locals, who named him "a vampire from Lugnano", and this idea was replicated by the local media. WITH since then, archaeologists have had more time to better understand who exactly could count the child, and they came to the conclusion that those who buried him and other children were afraid that they would become ghosts - the living dead.

The cemetery is located in the ruins of a Roman villa near Poggio Gramignano in central Italy It is dated to the 5th century AD, the time when the Western Roman Empire collapsed. By this time many people in the Roman Empire converted to Christianity.



Excavations at the site began in the 1980s and are ongoing. to this day. Since then, archaeologists have discovered a large number of remains dogs, most often puppies. Dog burials of that period "often are associated with children and serve as protectors for the dead, and puppies, perhaps, according to the people of that time, were more effective in as victims,” says David Soren, professor of anthropology at University of Arizona and one of the leaders of the research team.

Some children in the found cemetery were buried in an unusual way. way. For example, one child had a construction gag in his mouth. solution, while others were buried with their limbs crushed by stones. “At that time, people experienced great fear of the living dead and other mysterious powers such as witches who could use the souls of the dead for their own purposes," claims Soren. Fear of the undead was common among both Christians and among non-Christians of that period.



Analysis of the remains showed that many of those buried here children suffered from malaria. The outbreak, scientists say, could also encourage people to bury children in this way. "Stones in the mouth or on the body, to make it heavier, they were considered as amulets preventing evil. They could serve to protect a community not yet affected by it, ”- Soren says.

In this era, people experienced "a feeling of constant struggle with supernatural, so it is not surprising to see such things in a cemetery in areas where people have experienced a severe malaria outbreak,” says William Bowden, professor of archeology at the University of Nottingham Great Britain.

Of particular respect is the thoroughness of the work of scientists, says John Pierce, Senior Lecturer in Archeology at the Royal college London. This meticulousness allowed the researchers to to study and recreate the magical funeral rituals of antiquity, noted expert.