Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice

Rome-An archeaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws-evidence, experts say that she was believed to be a vampire. The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said. the well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576. Vampires don't exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did. For the first time evidence has found an exorcism against a vampire. Medieval texts show the belief in vampires was fueled by the disturbing appearance of decomposing bodies. During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.
These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies. They would see a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: This guy is alive, he's drinking blood and eating his shroud. Modern forensic science shows the bloating is caused by the buildup of gases, while fluid seeping from the mouth is pushed up by decomposing organs, the shroud would have been consumed by bacteria found in the mouth area. At the time however, what passed for scientific texts taught that shroud eaters were vampires who fed on the cloth and cast a spell that would spread the plague in order to increase their ranks. To kill the undead creatures, the stake in the heart method popularized by later literature was not enough. A stone or brick had to be forced into the vampires mouth so that it would starve to death. That's what is believed to have happened to the women found on the Lazzaretto island, which was used as a quarantine zone by venice. Aged around 60, she died of the plague during the epidemic that also claimed the life of the painter Titian. Much later, someone jammed the brick into her mouth when the grave was reopened.