In an unmarked cemetery in northern Poland, a young woman was laid to rest centuries ago in a manner both unique and grim: with an iron sickle pressed to her throat and a padlock on her foot. Her burial spoke of a community steeped in fear, eager to prevent what they saw as an evil resurrection. Known now as “Zosia,” she was one of several “vampire” burials from the time, each steeped in a potent mix of local lore and superstition.
Zosia was never supposed to come back from the dead. The 17th-century Polish villagers who oversaw her burial made certain of it — or so they thought.
Today, science has brought Zosia’s story back to life. Researchers from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, along with Swedish archaeologist Oscar Nilsson, have used DNA, 3D printing, and modeling clay to reconstruct her face, bringing a measure of dignity to a woman once reviled as an evil threat.
“It’s really ironic,” Nilsson told Reuters. “These people burying her . . . did everything they could in order to prevent her from coming back from the dead . . . we have done everything we can in order to bring her back to life.”
Meet Zosia
Zosia, researchers estimate, was just 18 to 20 years old when she died. At the time she was laid to rest in the 17th century, her village in Pień, like many in Europe, was gripped by anxiety about plague, famine, and war. Such conditions were fertile ground for the supernatural. Villagers sought out scapegoats in people who were not like the rest; often those suffering from mental illness (not recognized as a thing back then) and peculiar traits.
In Zosia’s case, skeletal abnormalities in her sternum and skull, revealed through scans, suggest she may have lived in visible discomfort. And Nilsson suspects that symptoms like fainting spells and severe headaches — illnesses poorly understood at the time — may have added to the suspicions that branded her a “vampire.”
The grave itself is like something from some horror movie: an iron sickle poised at her neck as though ready to decapitate her if she dared rise again, while a padlock clamped her foot, binding her spirit in place. Archaeologists explained that such measures were believed to “lock” the soul of anyone who might be “dangerous.” Pień’s villagers apparently hoped these barriers would protect the living, just in case Zosia’s death wasn’t quite as final as they’d wished.
“Dangerous people were thought to have two different souls, a good one and a bad one,” Nilsson explained in a post on Facebook. In this view, the padlock’s power held the “good soul” in check, while the sickle was ready to deter the “bad soul”—the part of Zosia that, in local folklore, could emerge as a malevolent “striga,” or vampire.
Reconstructing a Face, Restoring Humanity
In August 2022, researchers from Nicolaus Copernicus University discovered Zosia’s skeletal remains, along with those of a young child buried face down (perhaps another “vampire”). Unlike Zosia, who was buried with items hinting at a noble background — a silk headdress interwoven with gold or silver — the other graves bore only simple markers. Yet, each bore a trace of superstition and fear, signs of a community caught between science and magic.
To bring Zosia back to life, Nilsson started with a digital model of her skull, then 3D-printed it as a foundation for clay. Each layer was carefully sculpted to match what her bone structure and age suggested. With precision, Nilsson recreated her facial muscles, restoring her features and a human identity obscured by years of myth and legend. The final result is startlingly vivid — a face that, for all its centuries of separation, feels unexpectedly familiar.
For Nilsson, watching her face take shape was an amazing feeling. “It’s emotional to watch a face coming back from the dead,” he said, “especially when you know the story about this young girl.” The process, he added, was “about bringing Zosia back as a human, and not as this monster she is buried as.”
The young woman who was once entombed under layers of folklore now stares back at viewers with unmistakable humanity. She reminds us of the thin line between fear and compassion — and what terrible things can happen when that line is crossed in the wrong way.
“I’m used to reconstructing faces,” he added, “but in this case, also, I’m looking forward to giving her some human dignity back.”
This article originally appeared in November 2024 and was updated with new information.
