
Potential ‘vampires’ buried in northwestern Poland with sickles and rocks across their bodies were likely local and not immigrants to the region. In northwestern Poland, apotropaic funerary rites–a traditional practice intended to prevent evil–occurred throughout the 17th-18th c. AD.
http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/MZFWk8EF3VQ/141126144233.htm