Seventeen skeletons were recently discovered in Poland, buried in what is being called a vampire cemetery. The skulls had been removed and intentionally placed between the hands or knees of the dead body.

Construction workers in Poland recently made a bizarre discovery. While building a road in the southern part of the country, employees stumbled upon four skeletons, buried in what is being called a vampire cemetery.

The skulls had been removed and intentionally placed between the hands or knees of of each body. Subsequently an additional 13 bodies were found buried similarly in the area.

Archeologists currently believe the bodies are from the 15th or 16th centuries, when there was a fear of vampires in the Eastern Europe.

The heads were decapitated so that the dead would not be able to rise from the grave without their heads.

The widespread belief in vampires seems to stem from misunderstandings about disease along with a lack of education when it came to the process of decomposition.

For instance, when the gastrointestinal tract decays, a dark fluid emerges from the bodies which could have been mistaken for blood in the past. The effects of the decomposition made the dead appear like vampires.