17th Century Sickle Burials Reflect Belief that Demons Stalked War-Torn Poland

Poland during the 17th century was a nation torn by war, social upheaval, pestilence, famine and Catholic clerics inciting the populace with tales about the devil and witchcraft. The imaginations of many were beset by demons and vampires stalking the land.

Two researchers speculate that several bodies from that era in a graveyard in Drawsko, Poland, had sickles placed across their throats as a threat to keep them in their graves, says a new study in the journal Antiquity (abstract). The researchers note that the burials were not anti-vampiric, but rather anti-demonic and cite a number of different kinds of supernatural beings that Poles of the period believed in. 

The researchers, Marek Polcyn of Lakehead University in Ontario and Elżbieta Gajda of the Ziemi Czarnkowskiej Museum in Poland, wrote: