A mass grave of plague victims has been unearthed and a skeleton of a woman who was believed to be a vampire was found with a brick in her mouth. Apparently, this supports the medieval beliefs that vampires spread plagues like the Black Death.
The belief in vampires came about because decomposition wasn't widely understood. The dead would become bloated, blood came from the mouth, hair still grew and the shrouds laid on the faces of the dead would be "eaten" away by bacteria. Those would be called "shroud eaters". They were believed to suck the life from living until they could roam the earth again.
I wasn't that girl that wanted to know more about vampires or had an affinity to them. I've seen movies in the past with them but, wasn't curious to know or read more. They weren't alluring to me.
I always think it's amazing how far we've come as humans in our understanding and education yet, hold onto folklore and fantasy just the same. Vampires are just as popular as ever. With stories like Twilight becoming a huge success. We can turn ignorance over how a plague is spread, into stories of lust, sexuality and blood sucking. Imaginations ran wild with fear then and people still like to know fear. Maybe it's human instinct, like watching a car accident, etc?
All I can say is, I'll never look at an ad for another vampire movie or book the same way again!
1 comments:
That's an interesting story. I had no idea that the vampire myth had origins in decomposition. Freeeeaky =)
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