STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—NBC News reports that forensic artist Oscar Nilsson has reconstructed the face of Zosia, a woman who was buried with the blade of a sickle across her neck some 400 years ago. The burial was discovered in northern Poland’s village of Pien two years ago by researchers led by Dariusz Poliński of Nicolaus Copernicus University. The blade, and a lock placed on her foot, are thought to have been intended to keep the young woman from rising from the dead as a vampire. Analysis of the woman’s remains and a sample of her DNA has shown that she was between the ages of 18 and 20 when she died. The condition of her skull indicates that she had a health condition that could have caused fainting and severe headaches, and perhaps mental health issues. Nilsson first created a 3-D printed replica of Zosia’s skull, and then used information about her age and weight to sculpt muscles and facial features with layers of plasticine clay. “It’s really ironic, in a way,” Nilsson said. “These people burying her, they did everything they could in order to prevent her from coming back from the dead…We have done everything we can in order to bring her back to life,” he concluded. To read about treatment of medieval burials in Bulgaria that is evidence for protection against vampirism, go to “Vampire-Proofing Your Village.”

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Source: archaeology.org