An Archaeologist Found A "Vampire" Skeleton With A Stake Through Its Heart In A Ruined Ancient City

Well, this is creepy / awesome.

This skeleton, discovered at the site of the ancient Thracian temple of Perperikon, southeast of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, has an iron rod through its chest where its heart should be.

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The graves were found by archaeologist Nikolai Ovcharov. He says that in the Middle Ages the practice of pinning an iron bar through the chest was believed to stop the dead from becoming vampires.

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These are the sixth and seventh "vampire" graves discovered in the country in the past two years.

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Ovcharov told The Telegraph: "We have no doubts that once again we’re seeing an anti-vampire ritual being carried out."

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The paper reported that the skeleton was thought to be that of a man aged between 40 and 50. It said that the iron rod hammered through the chest was a heavy piece of a plough.

"Often they were applied to people who had died in unusual circumstances – such as suicide," Ovcharov told the paper.

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