Vampires in Bulgaria

Two Medieval human skeletons found at Sozopol, near the Black Sea in Bulgaria, have been excavated and found to have an iron rod piercing them through the chest.  A little odd, no?

The plot (or should I say clot) thickens: this phenomenon has been found in about 100 other skeletons from the Balkans.  Archaeologist Petar Balabanov in 2004 found six nailed-down skeletons at a site near the eastern Bulgarian town of Debelt according to BBC News.

Bozhidar Dimitrov, from the Bulgarian National History Museum, said "These skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th Century".

According to her, it was pagan practice as a rite to 'pin down' these dead so they would not come back and terrorise the living, in accordance with vampire folklore it seems.

Image courtesy of the National History Museum of Bulgaria/HO/EPA

Well, it's a great coincidence then that a Victorian vampire-slaying kit is going on auction in Yorkshire, isn't it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-18367300

Whether or not they were actually thought of as vampires is probably just a media hype.  But I can't wait to get my teeth into the findings when they're published.