Vampire stories and costumes are Halloween classics. However, it should be recognized that only one type vampire seems to have stood the test of time. In the past, there were many legends in different cultures, which were not necessarily about creatures that drink the blood of people. In fact, there was a time when, given the lack of knowledge about how spread diseasethey were accused of renewing them.
There are many such vampires, depending on where the legends originated from. A good example of this is the fact that Nachzehrer, whose history began in Germany but spread across Europe with every outbreak of plague or malaria. Presumably, those who died after eat your own shroudthey left their graves and looked for their relatives and acquaintances in order to infect them with the disease that killed them and take them with them to the afterlife.
They are usually recognized because, according to legend, to prevent them from doing their grim work, they put a stone in their mouth. Thus, they could not devour their shrouds. And you couldn’t let your soul leave your body.
Vampires Spreading Disease
For centuries, it has remained a mystery why diseases are transmitted from one person to another. In fact, it was in the 19th century that scientists like Louis Pasteur or John Snow (no, that’s not the one Game of Thrones) began to give the first explanations.
The first specialized in the study of microorganisms when he developed germ theory of disease. This revealed that it was microbes that were transmitted from one person to another, contributing to the spread of various pathologies that cause epidemics. As for the second, he managed to map out how cholera outbreak in the City of London and thus blame contaminated water for contamination.
But before that there was a lot of ignorance and superstition about this. Many blamed assumptions vampiresSo we had to take action. And this is what has been discovered over time, both from written sources of the time and from archaeological finds.
Carmilla, the woman who nearly rose from the dead
One of the most famous cases Nachzehrer which have been described in archeology, this is the tomb of a woman whose tomb dates from century XVIwas found near Venice.
In fact, it was not just a classical tomb, it was a mass grave in which several people died. Bubonic plague. But this woman, dubbed Carmilla by archaeologists, had something that other bodies didn’t have: stone placed in his mouth.
Counted from business insiderWhen scientists continued to study the body, they discovered that it had not actually been buried with a stone in its mouth. This was placed between the jaws of a corpse some time after its burial. And there is a possible explanation for this.
In 16th century Italy, it was believed that outbreaks of the bubonic plague could be transmitted through vampires. Nachzeherer. Therefore, it is possible that when opening the grave, perhaps to add more bodies or just to check if everything is in order, those responsible for the task saw something in Carmilla that shocked them. Perhaps even when the body is still fresh, the shroud would begin to decay through the mouth area. This should have led them to believe that it was beginning to devour its shroud and that it would soon be out in search of its first victims, so they quickly shoved the stone into its mouth. So he couldn’t keep biting.
The Boy Who Didn’t Come Back
But the case of Carmilla is not the only one in Italy. Something similar was seen in the skull of a child about 10 yearsfound in a children’s cemetery 5th centuryin an ancient Roman villa Poggio Gramignano. At that time, it was not about nachzehrers, but about souls leaving the body in the form of a vampire. And since it was believed that the soul comes out through the mouth, the stone was placed to prevent this from happening. The little boy died during malaria outbreak, so perhaps the goal was the same as Carmilla’s: not to spread the disease.
However, at that time it was also believed that if the souls of children escaped from their bodies, then they witch-raisedwho used them to their advantage. For some reason, this child was indeed buried with a stone, perhaps leaving those who did not yet know that there was an enemy much more terrible than vampires, more calm. Have you thought about dressing up as a microorganism for Halloween?
Source: Hiper Textual
