16th-Century 'Vampire' Woman Buried With Brick in Mouth Undergoes Facial Reconstruction by Scientists

An Italian "vampire" from the 16th century, who was buried with a brick stuck in her mouth, has been reconstructed by scientists. The brick was placed in her mouth due to fears that the woman would consume the corpses beneath the ground.

Vampire Woman Undergoes Facial Reconstruction

Now, the facial reconstruction reveals a woman with silver hair, wrinkled skin, a pointed chin, and a slightly crooked nose. The reconstruction was made through 3D scans of her prehistoric skull.

The reconstruction also reveals what the vampire woman would have appeared like with the block of stone placed in her jaws.

Such efforts were done by Cicero Moraes, a Brazilian forensic expert and 3D illustrator. Moraes detailed the endeavor in the "The Facial Close-Up of the "Vampira" from Venice (15th-17th Century)" study.

With 3D scans of the woman's skull, Moraes was able to estimate the soft tissue distribution in order to cover the woman's face with flesh. The nose was also designed based on data taken from tomography scan measurements of living individuals with various ancestries.

With this projected data, he was able to draw the face's profile. The study enabled him to see if the brick insertion could be done without leading to mouth and tooth damages.

The forensic expert recreated the brick using styrofoam to cut down to the same measurements and see if the brick could fit inside his own mouth.

16th-Century 'Vampire' Woman

Experts believe that the brick was inserted shortly after her death by locals who were scared that she would feed on fellow plague victims. The plague swept a town in Italy that is just a few minutes away from Venice.

Based on skeletal evidence, the woman was 60 years old by the time she died. However, not much is known about this "vampire" woman.

According to Moraes, the skeletal remains were discovered in 2006, during excavations held at Nuovo Lazzaretto's burial pits in Venice. This is where plague victims, who passed away between the 15th and 17th centuries, were buried.

Back then, a skull from one tomb drew attention, as it had an open jaw and a stone brick within its oral cavity. Moraes explains that further studies were conducted to see if the brick's positioning was deliberate or accidental, with the latter eventually becoming a rejected hypothesis. Results indicated that the brick's placement was intended and came as part of a symbolic ritual for burials.

Vampire Fears and Plague Circulations

Across the middle ages, fears regarding vampires were rampant. This was largely because of the lack of understanding regarding why dead bodies end up swelling up.

Beliefs regarding vampires spurred rituals as staking dead bodies through the heart prior to their burial.

Across certain cultures, the dead were also buried with their face directed to the ground. This was done in order to stop them from leaving their graves. Inserting objects in the mouth was a different practice.

Moraes explains that the suggestion that the woman was thought to be a vampire is based on a 2010 study. Moraes adds that the rituals for anti-vampirism result from the myth's evolution across history. The study specifically noted the belief regarding inserting bricks to make it impossible for vampires to neutralize and feed.

However, Moraes notes that there are no surviving records from the lifetime of the woman that suggest that society considered her a vampire. Rather, this comes from interpretations from modern times regarding the brick placement.

It was known that the Lazzaretto Nuovo was a quarantine area for plague victims. This happened in the 1400s to the 1700s.

This coincided with vampire fears that were triggered when locals observed swelling in dead bodies.

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