A woman who lived in 16th century Italy was buried in a most unusual fashion. Originally excavated in a mass grave of medieval plague victims several years ago, the woman’s skull was found with a brick lodged in its jawbone, indicating that this hard and bulky object had been shoved into her mouth before she was entombed.
Researchers eventually concluded that those responsible for this strange act believed she had been an Italian vampire, and the brick was intended to prevent her from feeding off the flesh of the plague victims buried beside her. Now, through the technique of facial reconstruction, this Italian vampire has been resurrected.
The facial reconstruction of the so-called Italian vampire used facial profile and projections based on tomography measurements of the woman’s skull unearthed in Venice. (Cicero Moraes / CC BY 4.0)
Facial Reconstruction Brings Italian Vampire to Life
Thanks to the meticulous work of a facial reconstruction expert, we know know exactly what this supposedly voracious Italian “vampire” actually looked like. Using scans of the human remains along combined with historic data, Brazilian 3D designer and illustrator Cicero Moraes recreated her precise features in a detailed, 3D-style computer model.
In an article published on the open access site Figshare, Moraes displayed his impressive handiwork to the public for the first time. He presented multiple images of a normal-looking, middle-aged woman who appears to have been around 60 years old at the time of her…
