Archaeologists in Italy are uncovering a 1,600-year-old burial ground containing the remains of infants, children and sacrificed puppies.
Some of the burials have unusual features — such as a child buried with a block in their mouth, which suggests that people were afraid that they could become “revenants” — corpses revived after death, archaeologists said. Analysis of the burials indicates that many of the dead suffered from malaria.
In 2018, it was suggested by local individuals that this child may have been viewed as a vampire, but new research suggests that this is inaccurate. The idea of the child being a vampire started among locals who called it the “Vampire of Lugnano” and this idea was spread by the media. Since then, archaeologists have had more time to better understand what exactly the child may have been seen as: a possible revenant.
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