Another Padlock Found in a 17th-Century Cemetery in Poland

TORUŃ, POLAND—Live Science reports that a 400-year-old burial containing the remains of a child who had been buried face-down with an iron padlock on its foot has been unearthed in the village of Pień in northern Poland. Such padlocks are thought to have been used to “secure” the body to the grave. “The padlock shows people were afraid of the child after its death,” explained archaeologist Dariusz Poliński of Nicolaus Copernicus University. He and his colleagues note that the seventeenth-century burial had not been placed in the village churchyard, but in a separate graveyard of about 100 graves that may have been reserved for the poor and “abandoned souls.” The child, who was between the ages of five and seven at the time of death, had been buried just a few feet away from the remains of a wealthy woman unearthed last year. She had been buried at about the same time as the child with a sickle placed over her neck and a padlock on her foot as well. This woman had been wearing garments made with gold thread, while flecks of gold on her remains suggest she had consumed a medicine containing gold. A third padlock found in the graveyard was discovered near scattered bones, Poliński added. Further analysis of the remains is expected to offer additional information, he concluded. To read more about supposed "vampire" burials in Poland, go to "Vampire-Proofing Your Village."