Science in a Minute 101918 Signs of Vampire Burial Found in Ancient Italian Cemetery

Archeologists, on a dig in an ancient Italian cemetery, found the skeletal remains of a ten-year-old child that suggested a so-called “Vampire Burial”. Among the remains included a skull that had an intentionally placed rock in its mouth. It’s thought that the child died in an outbreak of malaria that swept the Italian region of Umbria at during the 5^th century. The research say placing the stone in the child’s mouth may have been part of a funeral ritual designed to contain the disease as well as the body itself.