Pictures: Toothless "Vampire" Skeleton Unearthed in Bulgaria

Defanged
Photograph by Nikolay Doychinov, AFP/Getty Images
The discovery of a 700-year-old skeleton in Bulgaria—seen at the country's National Museum of History in June—offers evidence that the fear of vampires is far older than Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The "vampire" was found entombed among church ruins in the Black Sea town of Sozopol (map) earlier in the month. The skeleton had been stabbed in the chest with an iron rod (upper right), which was in the tomb next to the body.
In addition, the skeleton's teeth had been pulled. Scholars believe the rod and tooth-pulling were techniques villagers used to prevent dead men from turning into vampires.
The vampire obsession dates back millennia in countries across Europe.
"In graves thousands of years old, skeletons have been found staked, tied up, buried facedown, decapitated ... all well-attested ways of preempting the [attacks] of wandering corpses," wrote former National Geographic historian Mark Collins Jenkins in his book Vampire Forensics.
(Also see "Vampire Expert Digs His Fangs into True Blood, Twilight.")
—Claire Saravia
Published July 24, 2012
Brush With Death
Photograph from AFP/Getty Images
An archaeologist cleans one of two "vampire" skeletons excavated from its Sozopol burial site in June.
National Museum of History head Bozhidar Dimitrov said pagan beliefs from the Middle Ages suggested that men who had committed taboo acts could change into vampires after dying and plague those still living, according to the Reuters news service.
In addition, Vampire Forensics author Jenkins wrote, dead souls cut off in their prime might be prone to becoming vampires due to their bitterness towards those still alive. The recently dead, "No matter who they are, they are often conceived as resentful, aggressive, and willing to use their newly enhanced powers against the living."
(Also see "Six Ways to Stop a Vampire.")
Published July 24, 2012
Taking the Bar
Photograph from AP
An unearthed skeleton in Sozopol cradles the chunk of iron it was buried with—a remnant of the bar rammed through the corpse's chest.
In addition to a variety of beliefs prevalent at the time, certain misconceptions also played a role in determining whether a corpse was turning into a vampire.
University of Florence forensic archaeologist Matteo Borrini—who in 2009 unearthed a 16th-century Venetian woman with a brick in her mouth suspected of being a vampire—said many decomposing corpses were falsely identified as vampires. (See video of the Venice "vampire.")
"In the past the decomposition process was not well known," Borrini said by e-mail. "So when a corpse was discovered with the monstrous changes of decomposition, the legendary figure of the vampire was created."
Published July 24, 2012
Vampire Underworld?
Photograph courtesy National Museum of History, Bulgaria
A monastery looms over the church ruins where two so-called vampire skeletons were excavated this summer in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.
The perpetual fear of corpses turning into vampires was widespread in Bulgaria in the 12th to 14th centuries, when the uncovered skeletons from this site were put to rest, according to Reuters.
The belief in vampires gained momentum, and Borrini said the idea was widely supported by the end of the 17th century before spreading out.
(See video "Vampire Squid Turns 'Inside Out.'")
Published July 24, 2012
Showing Some Spine
Photograph from AP
Archaeologist Kalina Kostadincheva dusts off one of the skeletons from the excavation site.
While Bulgarians at the time had their own specific beliefs and rituals for dealing with suspected vampires, Borrini said, the Bulgarian vampire of the era did not differ widely from other conceptions across Europe.
"The background was usually the same in all eastern Europe," Borrini said. "The vampire was the same, and only some small differences could be in the way in which it attacked humans and the exorcism useful to stop him."
(Related: common vampire bat facts, pictures, and more.)
Published July 24, 2012
Killer Smile?
Photograph by Valentina Petrova, AP
An unearthed, 700-year-old "vampire" skeleton on display at the National History Museum in Sofia poses with its iron piece.
Jenkins wrote that the idea of a vampirelike flesh-eating corpse—known as the Nachzehrer—didn't appear in Europe until the 17th century.
However, the fact that one of the Sozopol skeleton's teeth had been removed suggests that Bulgarians may have held similar ideas centuries earlier.
(Related: "Vampire Bats Have Vein Sensors.")
Published July 24, 2012
Skeleton Coast
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic
An archaeologist studies a skeleton found at another Sozopol excavation site along the Black Sea.
Although belief in vampires began to die out in Bulgaria and the rest of Europe by the 19th century, Borrini said it's still significant for archaeologists to uncover evidence of those beliefs.
"These discoveries, as well as mine in Venice, are useful," Borrini said. "They are the evidence of a folkloric tradition, and from them we can physically reconstruct the ancient tradition, and fear, of a country."
(See a video on the forensic examination of the Venice "vampire.")
Published July 24, 2012
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Photograph by Historic Photo Archive, Getty Images
Published July 24, 2012