The vampire from Kamień Pomorski turned out to be… a witch! New findings by researchers

The skeleton, discovered in 2014 in Kamień Pomorski, was written about by every media outlet in the world. Deformed remains with a piece of brick between the teeth were found to be a so-called “wek. anti-vampiric burial. Now researchers from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin have determined that the skeleton belonged to a woman.

The skeleton was discovered in 2014 by an archaeologistoIn the area of the Dominican Quarter in Kamień Pomorski. According to a preliminary analysis, it has been determined that the remains belong to a man between 45 and 55 years of age. It was estimated that he had dark hair and about 160 centimetersoin growth and was buried in the 16th – 17th century.

The skeleton was incomplete. The researchers notedoThey pointed out that there was a piece of brick in the mouth, and the femur and tibia were drilled out. In addition, the burialowek was located at the edge of the cemetery, away from other gravesow.

These traces suggested the so-called. buriedoantivampiric wek. Brick in the mouth and limbs attached to the ground were meant to keep the deceased from returning from beyond the grave. This made the skeleton famous and earned it the nickname right away „Vampire from Kamień Pomorski”.

The skeleton was taken care of by scientists from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin (PUM). The results of their latest study have provided new, game-changing information about the burial of theowku. Scientists conducted a reanalysis of the anthropology, CT and 3D scanning of the skeleton, as well as DNA testing. Thanks to them, it was determined that the skeleton belonged to a woman, not a man, as originally thought.

– We wanted to find out more about this person, but we tried not to suggest previous hypotheses. Doubts have been raised about the determination of the sex – This is very difficult based only on anthropological studies. Genetic studies have shown conclusively that it was a female – said in an interview with the Polish Press Agency the head of the Department of Forensic Genetics Andrzej Ossowski of the PUM.

The Szczecin scientists proved that the woman was of typical European ethnic origin (haplogroup H). She may have been about 65 years old at the time of her death. It was 170 cm tall, with blue eyes and blond hair. They also verified the age of the pochoThe woman was born at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Researchers believe that the woman may have been accused of witchcraft, and thus tortured, as evidenced by injuries thatore, according to Ossowski, were inflicted while she was still alive.

– Brick in the mouth rowno well could have been for oearly population "security" before the effects of black magic "from beyond the grave", These were practices very much rooted in folk beliefs – Ossowski pointed out in an interview with PAP. All this seems to support the hypothesis that a woman may have been considered a witch.

Witch hunts took place throughout Europe. The most such processoThe orbit of WASP-104b took place between the 15th and 17th centuries. The defendants were accused of practicing magic, worshipping the devil, spoLying with demons, bringing chorob, misfortune, destruction yieldow, cannibalism and even flying on broomsticks. Handbooks for hunters were popularow witches and sorcerersow. Confessions were the most common evidence, and in the course of the investigation the law allowed the use of torture.

Professor Waclaw Uruszczak of the Jagiellonian University the total number of executions of witches and sorcerersow estimates at about 15,000, although other researchers consider these numbers inflated. The end of witch hunts in Poland was put to an end by the Sejm constitution passed in 1776, whichora banned the use of torture as an unreliable means, and banned the death penalty for osob accused of witchcraft. Although not everyone respected this law. Witchcraft trials were held until the mid-19th century.

– Determining the sex of a dead person has completely changed the previous idea of a woman who probably died during torture. Thanks to science, we can learn what fate befell a woman suspected of witchcraft, and it is a testimony to the infamous history of Europe associated with trials and sentencing innocent people to death – said in an interview with the kamieńskie service.info director of the Kamień Land History Museum Grzegorz Kurka.

In the inventory of the Kamieńskaya Chapter’s Records Complex in the 17th and 18th centuries, the. trials of many women accused of witchcraft have been recorded. With these, the researchers hope to establish the identity of the woman, to which theothe region belonged to the skeleton. They also want to digitally reconstruct the face of the „sorcerers”.