Romania is still considered by many as the vampire country, as it is home to Dracula, the famous vampire created by Bram Stoker; but this may be about to change. Just some hundred kilometers to the South, in Bulgaria, archeologists are finding ancient corpses which, at the time of their burial, were believed to be vampires.
Recently, two more of these ‘vampires’ have been found near the city of Sozopol, by the Black Sea. The bodies, which were buried in the 14th century, according to the scientists, had been stabbed in the heart with big iron sticks. This fact proves that their contemporaries believed them to be evil beings that would probably come back as undead creatures, what we call now a ‘vampire’.
Bozhidar Dimitrov, head of the Bulgarian National History Museum, has assured that over 100 of these bodies have been found in recent years in Bulgaria. Apparently, they were mostly aristocrats and clerics.
‘These people were believed to be evil while they were alive, and it was believed that they would become vampires once they are dead, continuing to torment people,’ said Dimitrov.
Dracula might be the most famous vampire in literature, though the historical character that inspired it, Vlad Țepeș, has very little to do with the vampire myth. He was a Prince of Wallachia in the 15th century, regarded as a national hero in Romania.
Source: Time, Sofia News Agency
Photo via 20 Minutos
Vampires and Vampirism
Montague Summers
(No Ratings Yet)
