site.btaProf. Ovcharov Says Latest Find at Perperikon Features Rituals against Vampirism

The grave of a deceased person, with rituals against vampirism performed on the body discovered most recently at Perperikon, the ancient Thracian city in the Eastern Rhodopi Mountains, is that of a person with malformations, the head of the excavations, Prof. Nikolai Ovcharov, told journalists Wednesday.  

At first, the archaeologists thought the body was that of a child, measuring as it did just 110 cm. Further research, however, indicated a person with malformations. 

Such treatment of the body is not surprising, for people like that either became jesters or were ostracized by society, Ovcharov commented. 

The additional discoveries leading to the latest conclusion include a cross obviously taken down from a gonfalon (processional banner) and a sharp object. Both were placed on the shoulders of the deceased, the gonfalon cross used in a ritual against vampirism being a first ever discovery.

This is yet another interesting addition to the history of Perperikon, again in the urban southern sector of the 13th – 14th century.

The discovery emerges after some 250 graves and tombs were uncovered around the Great Basilica in the same southern sector, the professor added. He recalled that a grave with traces of a similar ritual against vampirism was discovered at Perperikon in 2013, in which case a ploughshare was imbedded in the left part of the body.