Why Was This 17th-Century Polish Woman Buried With a Padlock on Her Toe and an Iron Sickle Across Her Neck?

In the mid-17th century, a young woman was buried in what is now Pień, Poland, after dying under unknown circumstances. When archaeologists discovered her grave more than 300 years later, in 2022, they were surprised to find that it contained an out-of-place pair of iron objects: a sickle laid across the woman’s throat, with the blade facing toward her, and a triangular padlock affixed to her big toe. What did these items signify?

Researchers led by Dariusz Poliński, an archaeologist at Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University, have spent the past four years trying to find an answer, and now, they’ve published their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The team’s analysis suggests that locals viewed the woman—now dubbed “Zosia”—as a threat, blaming her for misfortunes such as disease and famine for reasons that still remain unclear. To prevent Zosia from rising from the dead and causing further mayhem, they initially put a lock around her toe, then later returned to the grave to place the sickle over her neck.

The archaeologists found traces of copper, manganese and gold on Zosia’s palate, perhaps indicating that some other object, still unidentified, was placed in her nose or mouth after death as another safeguard. Grave 75, where Zosia was interred, wasn’t the only unusual burial in the Pień cemetery. Excavations have also unearthed the remains of a child buried facedown, with a padlock under their foot, and skeletons weighed down with rocks.

More than a dozen of the 101 burials surveyed so far “can be categorized as extraordinary,” Helen Wright reported for TVP World earlier this year. Archaeologists sometimes refer to these types of graves as “anti-vampiric,” despite the fact that the term only came into widespread use in Europe in the 18th century. Although news reports sensationally identified Zosia as a “vampire,” in this context, the label more accurately functions “as a broader category denoting a demonic being,” the authors write in the paper.

In the 17th century, people might have been classified as “demonic” or “vampiric” simply because they were outsiders to the local community, religious heretics or orphans. Those who died by suicide, drowning, in childbirth or under other tragic circumstances might also be viewed with suspicion. The high incidence of atypical burials in Pień led the study’s authors to theorize that the cemetery is located on unconsecrated ground, apart from a church or a chapel, in an area used to bury the poor and the disgraced.

Zosia herself probably fell under the latter category: The researchers found traces of silk fabric on her skull that seemingly came from an expensive cap trimming woven with gold threads. Based on the rarity of such accessories, the team argues that Zosia was an elite member of society, perhaps even a noblewoman. What might a high-ranking person in her late teens have done to incur the wrath of her community?