Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of unusual burial practices while excavating an early Roman imperial tomb in Turkey. Instead of the typical method of being cremated on a pyre and the remains taken to a final resting place, these cremated remains were left in place and covered with bricks and a layer of lime. Eventually, several dozen bent and twisted nails, some with snapped heads, were scattered around the burn site. The archaeologists suggest that this is evidence of magical thinking, specifically an attempt to prevent the deceased from rising from the grave to haunt the living, so a newer paper published in Antiquity magazine.
Perhaps the best-known examples of this type of superstitious burial practice are the so-called “vampire” burials that occasionally appear at archaeological sites around the world. In the early 1990s, children at play in Connecticut came across the remains of a middle-aged 19th-century man identified only by the initials “JB55” written in brass nails on his coffin. His skull and femurs were neatly arranged in the shape of a skull and crossbones, leading archaeologists to conclude the man was suspected of being a “vampire” by his community. You have now found a probable identification for JB55 and reconstructed what the man might have looked like.
In 2018, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a 10-year-old child at an ancient Roman site in Italy with a stone carefully placed in his mouth. This suggests those who buried the child – who likely died of malaria during a deadly 5th-century outbreak – feared he might rise from the dead and spread the disease to those who survived. The locals call it the “vampire of Lugnano”. And last year archaeologists uncovered An unusual example of people using these tips in a 17th-century Polish cemetery near Bydgoszcz: a female skeleton buried with a sickle across her neck and a padlock on the big toe of her left foot.
This latest find is part of a research project at KU Leuven in Belgium to excavate a specific area of the Sagalassos Location in southwest Turkey. Humans occupied the region from the late 5th century BC. To the mid-13th century AD Despite extensive damage from an earthquake in the 7th century AD, the area in question is somewhat isolated and set apart from the central and residential areas of the city. It consists of several connected terraces that were used for burial purposes. The early Roman imperial tomb was first discovered in 1990, and archaeologists resumed work on the immediate area in 2012, finding evidence of burials and cremations dating back about six centuries.
The scattered nails were found on a roughly rectangular patch of scorched earth: the remains of a pyre, complete with charcoal fragments of jaws and scars, as well as burnt human bones. The burned bones belonged to a single person, most likely a man, who died around the age of 18 according to osteological analysis. The bone fragments were still arranged roughly anatomically, with no evidence of handling during or after cremation.
Some of the remains of charcoal appeared to be textile, suggesting clothing or a shroud. Several artifacts were also found among the cremated remains: a 2nd-century AD coin, a handful of 1st-century AD pottery vessels, two urns made of blown glass, and an object made of worked bone with bronze hinges, whose Purpose it is unknown. This is evidence that the mourners appeared to follow at least some of the traditional funeral rites.
It is the 41 broken and bent nails — 25 bent at 90-degree angles with heads snapped off, 16 bent and twisted but otherwise whole — recovered from the site that marked this cremation. These were not coffin nails, which are usually found intact, and nails were not used in the construction of the pyre. The authors therefore concluded that the broken nails had been deliberately scattered around the burial site to form a “magical barrier”. Several ancient literary sources mention nails used to ward off disease (Livy) or to protect against nightmares (Pliny the Elder).
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