NCU News
Humanities and arts
New Face of the Vampire Woman
An image of the so-called vampire woman from Pień was publicized by Oscar Nilsson, a sculptor and archeologist from Sweden. He prepared a reconstruction of the face of the young woman buried with a triangular padlock on her toe and a sickle on her neck. The discovery was made on a burial site in the village of Pień located near Dąbrowa Chełmińska. The unusual grave was found by archeologists from the NCU in 2022.
The archeologists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń have been exploring the burial site in Pień located near Dąbrowa Chełmińska since 2005, but their research attained significant prominence two years ago, when they found a young woman's skeleton with a triangular padlock on her toe and a sickle on her neck. Media soon called the discovery a "vampire's grave" although the scientists emphasized that the finding does not necessarily indicate that a vampire was indeed buried there. “I would prefer to consider these practices as activities protecting the living against the dead, traditionally considered anti-vampire procedures, explains the head of the research in Pień, dr hab. Dariusz Poliński, Prof. NCU from the Department of Mediaeval Period and Early Modern Period of the Faculty of History at the Nicolaus Copernicus University. The woman could possibly have some physical impairment or mental disorder and was thus mistreated by her neighbors who thought she would scare them after death."
photo Andrzej Romański
This spring, Mr Nilsson, an artist specializing in reconstructing our ancestors' faces, took up the task of recreating the young woman's face. In his work, he applies and combines his whole knowledge about anatomy, history, archeology well as artistic skills and additionally takes advantage of the state-of-the-art technology, i.e. 3D printing and DNA testing.
“The process of face reconstruction takes from 200 to 400 hours, explained the artist from Sweden on a meeting organized in Ostromecko in March 2024. Imaging the shape of ears and the nose tip is the most problematic and questionable issue. If I have no results of DNA tests at my disposal, the whole pigmentation including the color of eyes, hair, complexion is highly speculative.
photo Andrzej Romański
The artist used the 3D printed model of the vampire woman's skull. He attached pins of different length to the model which reflected the thickness of tissue in various anatomic parts of the face. Next, he applied muscles made of a special kind of clay. After that, he fitted eyeballs and subsequent layers imitating tissue and skin, taking into account wrinkles, skin pores, facial features as well as scars resulting from injuries. The final stage of the reconstruction process involved dipping the face in silicone and attaching hair, eyelashes and eyebrows to it. The reconstructed face of the vampire woman should be in Poland in a few weeks. On Monday, 28 October, Mr Nilsson presented the image of the young woman.
On that day in Sweden and on 29 October in Great Britain viewers could see a movie entitled FIELD OF VAMPIRES. The American premiere of the documentary on the research in Pień was planned on 30 October. In Poland, the movie will be available in 2025.
