(Newser)
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Italian archeologists have discovered evidence of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual in a 16th-century plague pit near Venice, the AP reports. A female skeleton was unearthed with a brick wedged between her jaws, in what experts believe was an attempt by superstitious gravediggers to stop the corpse from eating through its shroud to feast on the bodies of other plague victims.
Historians say that when mass graves were opened again for reuse during plague outbreaks, diggers would sometimes find bloated bodies with blood in their mouths and holes in their shrouds—all caused by decomposition—and believe the corpses had come to life to drink blood. Scientific texts of the time taught that the plague was spread by "shroud-eaters" seeking to increase the ranks of the undead.
