Incredible footage reveals up close the skeleton of a young woman found buried in rural Poland with a sickle in her neck and a giant padlock on her toe.
The remains of the 18-year-old, dubbed ‘Zosia’ by archaeologists, were found in 2022 in a field outside the small village of Pien, south of the city of Torun.
It is believed that the locals installed the sickle and padlock to protect them, fearing that the ‘vampire’ girl would rise from the grave.
For generations, villagers have avoided the area and it has never been built on, while the young have been taught to avoid it.
The girl was among 100 skeletons found buried and now the find is profiled in tonight’s two-part Sky History documentary Field of Vampires.
A clip from tonight’s episode shows the skeleton in the cemetery and talks about how the triangular padlock found on the woman’s toe is ‘incredibly rare’.
Incredible footage reveals the skeleton of a young woman found buried in rural Poland with a sickle in her neck and a giant padlock on her toe. The 18-year-old’s remains were found in 2022 in a field outside the small village of Pien, south of the city of Torun. The find is detailed in the Sky History documentary Field of Vampires tonight.
A clip from tonight’s episode tells how the triangular padlock found on woman’s toe is ‘incredibly rare’
Only one such object has previously been found in Poland. Together with the sickle, the discovery is unique in Poland and possibly in the world.
Bone scans have revealed an abnormality in Zosia’s sternum, suggesting she may have suffered a physical deformity that caused a lot of pain.
It may have been this deformity that made her especially feared as a vampire before she was brutally sacrificed and buried.
Zosia was found by Professor Dariusz Polinski and his partner Magda Zagrodzka.
It was late two years ago during their excavation at Pien that Professor Polinski’s trowel had hit something that looked like metal.
Professor Polinski says in tonight’s programme: ‘The first thing we found was something that sounded like iron or metal.
‘After careful brushing it turned out to be convex and we knew it was a sickle.’
The artist’s impression suggests that she had a blond face, blue eyes and short-cropped hair, possibly from Scandinavia
Zosia’s skeleton was found with a sickle firmly placed to ensure she would be beheaded if she rose from the dead
The piece of metal that turned out to be an ‘incredibly rare’ triangular padlock
Historian Dan Jones says: ‘I must admit I was incredibly excited when I first saw the photos. I’ve never seen anything like it. Is this a crime scene?
‘Is this evidence of the supernatural? Is this evidence of a unique fad or are we actually stepping back into a completely different world where Europe was governed by completely different rules?’
Zosia is the only skeleton found with a sickle – a farming tool with a sharp, curved blade used for cutting corn – around her neck.
It was put in place to ensure that the dead young woman would be beheaded if she came back to life and tried to rise.
Zosia was also found with a silk cap on her head – indicating that she had a high social status – and a protruding tooth.
Because she died around the time of the Swedish-Polish Wars, researchers have speculated that she may have been Swedish and therefore considered an outsider.
Facial reconstruction expert Oscar Nilsson took a digital scan of her skull and made a copy with a 3D printer.
The site in Pien is called the ‘Field of the Vampires’ because about 30 of the skeletons show signs of having been restrained.
The 100 graves also include a partially exhumed child, a pregnant woman, a woman with advanced syphilis and a man with the corpse of a child at his feet.
Zosia is the only skeleton found with a sickle – a farming tool with a sharp, curved blade used for cutting corn – around her neck
Employees seen at the site in a field that has not been cultivated for generations. Young people are warned to stay away from it
Professor Polinski said this cemetery was specifically intended for people who were ‘excluded from the community’.
However, all the graves remained unmarked and there are not even any written records of bodies at the site, making identification a monumental task.
Some bodies were face down, others were weighted with stones, while still others carried coins in their mouths.
Thanks to classics such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and FW Murnau’s Nosferatu, the legend of the vampire has spread throughout the world today.
Professor Polinski and his partner plan to return to Pien for more excavations, including a night using fluorescent lights to uncover new bones.
Field of Vampires airs tonight at 9pm and simultaneously on November 5 on Sky History.