Researchers have examined the skeletal remains of 17 th century graves in northwestern Poland and have speculated that the ones given vampire burials may have actually been cholera victims, explaining the extra precautions the villagers took in dealing with their bodies. Lesley Gregoricka from the University of South Alabama and colleagues have published a study in the journal PLOS One, detailing the apotropaic burials (involving rites and items designed to avert evil), and how they relate to the vampire lore of Eastern Europe. Such popularly named “vampire graves” occurred predominantly in the post-medieval period and across the continent – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Ireland, and Greece to name only a few locations. Bodies are often found to have strange items
