Researchers recreate the appearance of 400-year-old Polish ‘vampire’ Zosia

“Zosia” was buried with a padlock on her leg and an iron sickle around her neck, and was never supposed to come back to life.

The young woman buried in an unmarked cemetery in Pien, northern Poland, was one of dozens of people feared by her neighbors to be “vampires.”

Now, a team of scientists has used DNA, 3D printing, and clay modeling to reconstruct Zosia’s 400-year-old face, revealing a human story buried in supernatural beliefs.

“In a way, it’s really ironic,” says Swedish archaeologist Oskar Nilsson. “The people who buried her did everything they could to prevent her from rising from the dead…We did everything we could to bring her back to life.”

Zosia, as it was named by local residents, was discovered in 2022 by a team of archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

Zosia was between 18 and 20 years old at the time of her death, and analysis of her skull suggested she suffered from a health condition that could cause fainting, severe headaches and even mental health problems, Nilsson said.

According to Nicolaus Copernicus’ team, sickles, padlocks and certain types of wood found in graveyards were all believed at the time to have magical properties that could protect against vampires.

Zosia’s grave was grave number 75 in an unmarked cemetery on the outskirts of Pien, a city north of Bydgoszcz. Among the other bodies found at the scene was a “vampire” child who was buried face down with a padlock at his feet as well.

Little is known about Zosia’s life, but Nilsson and Pien’s research team believe that the items with which she was buried indicate that she came from a wealthy (possibly aristocratic) family.

Nilsson suggests that the war-torn 17th-century Europe in which she lived created a climate of fear in which belief in supernatural monsters was common.

Nilsson’s recreation began by creating a 3D-printed replica of the skull, then gradually built up layers of clay “muscle by muscle” to form a lifelike face.

He combines bone structure with information about gender, age, ethnicity, and approximate weight to estimate the depth of facial features.

“It’s emotional to see a face come back from the dead, especially when you know this young girl’s story,” Nilsson says.

Nilsson said he wanted to bring Zosia back “as a human being, not as a buried monster.”