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"Vampire" bones found in northwestern Poland revealed that the corpses buried with sickles and rocks across their bodies were probably local and not immigrants.

Researchers explained that vampire burials were practiced throughout the 17th-18th c. AD in northwestern Poland. People suspected as blood-lusting monsters were treated in a specific way. Lead researcher Lesley Gregoricka from University of South Alabama and her team believe that studying these burial practices could reveal abundant information about the societal cultural and social practices, as well as the identities of people living in the community.

Previous cemetery excavations revealed six mysterious graves containing individuals buried with sickles across their bodies and large rocks under their chins. Researchers said the looked at the permanent molars of 60 individuals excavated from the Polish cemetery to identify whether the six individuals buried as vampires were local or non-local immigrants. After comparing archaeological dental enamel to local animals, Gregoricka and her team found that the "vampires" were mostly local.

Researchers explained that the radiogenic strontium isotope data collected in the study suggested that those buried as vampires were local individuals whose social identity or manner of death likely marked them with suspicion in some other way instead of migrants to the region.

Cholera epidemics may explain these vampire burials. Experts explained that cholera epidemics were common in 17^th century Eastern Europe. The first person to die from the outbreak was believed more likely to return from the dead as a vampire.

"People of the post-medieval period did not understand how disease was spread, and rather than a scientific explanation for these epidemics, cholera and the deaths that resulted from it were explained by the supernatural - in this case, vampires," said Gregoricka.

The findings are published in the journal PLoS ONE.