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Lugnano child burial
At Lugnano in Teverina, a Roman-era cemetery for infants and children produced burials in which the bodies had been weighed down or had stones set in their mouths. The excavators interpret these as steps taken against the dead rising. The graves are far older than any written vampire tradition. They suggest that fear of the returning corpse, and the physical means of preventing it, were already present in late antique Italy.1
- a stone forced into the mouth after death
- stones weighing down the hands and feet
When did it first appear?
450A 5th-century children's cemetery at Lugnano in Teverina
What the sources say
The site is known as the Children's Necropolis1
One child was buried with a rock placed in its mouth1
Another, a girl, had stones laid on her hands and feet1
Archaeologists read the measures as attempts to stop the dead child returning1
Rocks over the body and objects in the mouth are among the anti-revenant measures recorded across Europe1
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].
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