Vampire Burials
At a number of locations, particularly in Eastern Europe, odd burials have been located during excavations of old cemeteries. These burials varied somewhat, but shared some distinct, and creepy, characteristics. These include placing a sickle across the body or a large rock under the jaw; however, there are more extreme cases as well. These include nailing the body to the coffin, decapitating or dismembering the body, or driving a stake through the body.
In Eastern Europe, misfortune, from disease to crop loss, was frequently blamed on vampires. The first place the community looked was at the recently dead, particularly individuals who failed to fit into society appropriately, including alcoholics, the insane, or those with physical differences. In addition, people born “in the caul” or with an unbroken amniotic sac were more likely to become vampires after death. The sort of social misfits frequently associated with vampirism were similar to the individuals accused of witchcraft in Western Europe; however, vampirism was a less-bloody situation. The accused were, of course, already dead.
The Eastern European idea of the vampire or revenant, someone who rises from the dead, is quite a lot broader than the Hollywood image of a vampire. These practices may have identified these dead individuals as any number of different demonic figures or forces.
By and large, according to recent studies, these were local people. They were identified by the people of their own communities as vampires, or possible vampires, following their deaths, and the corpses were treated accordingly, either before burial, or after disinterment.