Researchers are using archaeological, chemical and genetic evidence to investigate an unusual burial discovered in 2022 at a cemetery in Pień, north-central Poland. Known as Grave 75, it contained the remains of a young woman buried with a curved iron sickle positioned over her neck and a triangular padlock attached to the big toe of her left foot.
The woman died at approximately 17–19 years old. Radiocarbon analysis indicates that she was most likely buried between 1620 and 1674 CE, a range assigned a 52.6% probability. The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Archaeology at Nicolaus Copernicus University and used evidence from the grave, skeleton, textiles, DNA and isotopes.
The arrangement of the burial is consistent with practices sometimes described as anti-vampiric or anti-demonic. Such treatments were intended to prevent the dead from rising or harming the living. The researchers found that the grave soil had been disturbed and mixed, and that the body was probably moved before decomposition was complete. They suggest the grave may have been reopened so that the woman’s left arm could be pulled toward the northeast and the sickle placed with its blade facing her throat. The sickle’s decayed handle was made from birch wood, which the study associates with historical protective beliefs.
Small metallic threads near the woman’s skull were identified as pure silver and gold-gilded wire from a luxurious silk headwear cap. These materials suggest she came from a wealthy family, although chemical evidence also placed her among cemetery adults with very low consumption of animal protein, possibly indicating periods of malnutrition.
DNA analysis assigned her maternal lineage to haplogroup J1c2c1, described as rare and associated with origins in Scandinavia but virtually absent among modern Slavic populations. Isotope results from her childhood teeth, however, indicate that she grew up locally in Pień.
A green stain on her palate and neck bones may have resulted from a copper-containing object or medicinal substance placed deep in her mouth or nasal passage, the researchers propose. Tests did not support the initial possibility that the stain came from a coin.
The cemetery itself was absent from historical maps and contained no Catholic crosses or devotional objects. Its location near a crossroads, away from the village, led the researchers to suggest it may have been a cemetery for people feared or rejected by the community. They present Grave 75 as evidence of social anxieties and protective beliefs in 17th-century Poland, while acknowledging that the burial’s precise circumstances cannot be recovered from archaeology alone.
