Final moments of Poland's teen 'vampire' mystery solved after 350 years

The face of Polish 'vampire' Zosia has been reconstructed 350 years after she was buried. (Image: Institute of Archeology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University/Oscar Nillson)

The last moments of a Polish teenager believed to be a vampire have been revealed 350 years after her body was buried.

Eighteen-year-old Zosia's corpse was unearthed outside the village Pien, south of the city Torun, with a sickle around her and a padlock on her foot.

Her remains lay in an unmarked grave for 350 years until Dariusz Polinski and his partner Magda Zagrodzka discovered her by luck in 2022.

Dariusz was digging with a trowel on a hill in northern Poland when he heard it clash with metal. After he and Magda cleared away soil and debris, they discovered the 206 bones that made up Zosia.

The combination of the sickle and the padlock found on her remains was believed to be a "double protection" against her rising from the grave.

Zosia was buried with a sickle designed to decapitate her should she rise from the dead. (Image: Miroslaw Blicharski/Aleksander Poznan)

Archaeologists also discovered a possible deformity that would've caused Zosia great pain and added to the fear that she was a vampire, ultimately leading to her being sacrificed and buried.

Zosia was left in an unmarked grave with no walls, tombs or headstones, and not attached to a church; there was no written evidence of her burial.

Dariusz said this was a "very strange" case and suggests the young woman was "abandoned" as those who feared she was a vampire sought to write her out of history.

He told The Times: "What we know for sure is that this place, this cemetery, was for people who were excluded from the community.

"There are no historical sources about this place, which is very strange and means that it was the cemetery for people who were abandoned. It has been written out of history."

She was also the only one in the burial site with a sickle around her, designed to decapitate her should she ever rise from the dead. 

Dariusz added: "It can be assumed that for some reason those burying the woman were afraid that she would rise from the grave.

"The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured.

"Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone."

Zosia was found in what has now been dubbed the "Field of Vampires" with around 100 other people, including a pregnant woman, a man with a child's corpse at his feet, and a partially exhumed child.