Vampires in History: Between Science and Folklore
They are here and they are indestructible. They are back in movies like Let Me In and the Twilight saga. But what are they hiding? Is there any scientific basis for such seduction? For some, they are part of European folklore; for others, they were historically confused with rabies patients.
The island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, south of Venice, is a small two-hectare patch of land that houses the ruins of what was once a hospital for pilgrims to the Holy Land, a leper colony, and an ammunition depot. The "Lazaretto" (which owes its name to the religious order of Saint Lazarus, tasked with caring for lepers) was the place where ships coming from the Mediterranean and the Middle East would disembark before docking in the city. People with symptoms of the bubonic plague, which ravaged Venice between the 15th and 16th centuries and claimed 50,000 lives, were quarantined there. Three years ago, a group of Italian anthropologists discovered a mass grave on the site with over 1,500 skeletons. Recently, Matteo Borrini, from the University of Florence, announced a sensational discovery: he had found the remains of a "vampire."
It was the skeleton of a woman whose jaw had been displaced by a piece of brick, inserted there by terrified gravediggers. They believed they were facing an "undead," a being capable of chewing through its own shroud to clear a path. This blocking technique is described in ancient folk exorcism rituals. Historically, it was believed that bodies showing blood in the mouth and nose were not truly dead. In an era when the plague appeared suddenly on every corner and people died overnight—as if chosen by a capricious and deadly hand—the belief in vampires as transmitters of the disease spread almost as fast as the infected rats and fleas.
It was believed that these otherworldly beings could return to bite their companions, infecting them with the evil; therefore, it was imperative to block their teeth with a stone. "Actually, I had luck I didn't expect in discovering a vampire during my excavations," Borrini told National Geographic. Archaeology rarely finds similar cases, as beliefs and superstitions seldom leave material traces that survive the passage of centuries.
The Horror at Lazzaretto Vecchio
Lazzaretto Vecchio was an infernal place. The volume of plague deaths forced gravediggers to periodically reopen mass graves to deposit new bodies. Today, the skeletons are piled up and mixed in various positions along a trench just over two meters wide, surrounded by dark earth. Borrini believes that the gravediggers' lack of knowledge reinforced the belief in vampirism. By reopening the graves, they exposed bodies that did not decompose at the same rate—it was like a misunderstood anatomy lesson of death.
In the case of the woman found, it is likely that dark fluids had drained from her mouth after death. Someone, upon seeing her, thought she had fed on her companions. Furthermore, intestinal bacteria produce gases that considerably inflate the corpse, and the decomposition process can corrode the linen of the shroud near the mouth, giving the impression that the "vampire" was trying to gnaw through the cloth to free itself.
Myth vs. Reality
What kind of vampire are we talking about? The word immediately evokes an elegant being, a pale Romanian aristocrat wearing a red and black lined cape, with prominent canines and the ability to transform into a bat or a wolf. None of these characteristics left traces on the Venetian woman's skeleton. In fact, the vampire molded by history and legend has nothing to do with cinema or Victorian literature.
The historical Dracula, Vlad Tepes (the Impaler), was a Romanian prince who inspired Bram Stoker. Stoker's novel mixed historical facts with fiction, creating an unstoppable phenomenon of "mental contamination." For older Romanians, Vlad is a national hero who resisted the Turks, and the "monster" image projected by the West causes indignation. The younger generation, with an entrepreneurial spirit, takes advantage of the flow of tourists attracted by the money the Dracula myth generates.
Paul Barber, researcher and author of Vampires, Burial, and Folklore, explains that real folklore is very different from Hollywood glamour. The folk vampire was, for the most part, a poor peasant, without capes or castles. In Slavic tradition, they not only drank blood but also ruined grain silos to harm the livelihood of the living.
Physiological Explanations
The reddish appearance attributed to vampires in ancient accounts (like the Serbian saying "red as a vampire") has an explanation in the exposed dermis and the accumulation of blood in tissues depending on the body's position (livor mortis). Even the famous "scream" that a corpse supposedly made when being pierced by a stake was just the sound of air being forced through the vocal cords due to gases accumulated in the abdomen.
Spanish neurologist Juan Gómez Alonso also points out similarities between vampirism and rabies. The disease, transmitted by bites from animals like dogs and bats, causes aggression, insomnia, hypersensitivity to odors (like garlic) and mirrors, as well as wandering behavior. Rabies epidemics in 18th-century Eastern Europe curiously coincide with the peaks in reports of vampirism.
Why does the fascination continue?
The line between life and death is the ultimate taboo. In a society where death is sanitized and hidden in hospitals, the vampire represents a challenge to the established order. It crosses the forbidden border and returns, becoming an irresistible figure for the human imagination.
(Adapted from: ARIZ, Luis Miguel. El País, 2009).
