Lesley Gregorika to give presentation on the "Bioarchaeology of the Undead: Vampire Burials and Residential Mobility in Post-­‐Medieval Poland"

Bioarchaeology of the Undead: Vampire Burials and Residential Mobility in Post-­‐Medieval Poland”

Lesley Gregorika, University of South Alabama 

When: Thursday September 21, 11am-­‐12pm

Where: Mitchell Library Auditorium

Apotropaics – objects intended prevent evil – have  been recovered from archaeological sites across medieval and postmedieval Europe and included grave goods placed with the dead considered at risk for becoming vampires. Excavations at the Drawsko cemetery (17th–18th c. AD) in northwestern Poland have revealed multiple examples of apotropaics deposited with “vampires” buried amidst hundreds of normative interments. While historic records describe the many reasons why some were thought more susceptible to vampirism than others, here we will attempt to explore differences in social identity between individuals within standard and deviant burials using chemical analyses of human skeletal remains.