Editing Vampire (section)

==== Methods of destruction ====
[[File:Norre naeraa 600px.jpg|thumb|upright|right|A runestone with an inscription to keep the deceased in its grave<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Stephen A. |title=Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |pages=22–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shCXJLB6mDAC |isbn=978-0-8122-4290-4 |access-date=5 February 2018 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307213753/https://books.google.com/books?id=shCXJLB6mDAC |url-status=live }}</ref>|alt=See caption]]
Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with [[impalement|staking]] the most commonly cited method, particularly in South Slavic cultures.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=73}} [[Ash tree|Ash]] was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states,<ref>{{cite book|last=Alseikaite-Gimbutiene|first=Marija|author-link=Marija Gimbutas|title=Die Bestattung in Litauen in der vorgeschichtlichen Zeit|year=1946|location=Tübingen|oclc=1059867|language=de}} (thesis).</ref> or [[Crataegus monogyna|hawthorn]] in Serbia,<ref name="Vuk59">{{cite journal|last=Vukanović|first=T.P.|year=1959|title=The Vampire|journal=Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society|volume=38|pages=111–18}}</ref> with a record of [[oak]] in [[Silesia]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Klapper|first=Joseph|title=Die schlesischen Geschichten von den schädingenden Toten|journal=Mitteilungen der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde|volume=11|pages=58–93|year=1909|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Calmet|first1=Augustin|title=Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants: of Hungary, Moravia, et al. The Complete Volumes I & II. 2016|isbn=978-1-5331-4568-0|page=7|date=30 December 2015|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> [[Populus tremula|Aspen]] was also used for stakes, as it was believed that [[Christ's cross]] was made from aspen (aspen branches on the graves of purported vampires were also believed to prevent their risings at night).<ref>{{cite book|author=Theresa Cheung|title=The Element Encyclopedia of Vampires|publisher=HarperCollins UK|year=2013|page=35|isbn=978-0-00-752473-0}}</ref> Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany<ref>{{cite book|last=Löwenstimm|first=A.|title=Aberglaube und Stafrecht|page=99|year=1897|publisher=Berlin|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bachtold-Staubli|first=H.|title=Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens|year=1934–1935|publisher=Berlin|language=de}}</ref> and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Filipovic|first=Milenko|year=1962|title=Die Leichenverbrennung bei den Südslaven|journal=Wiener Völkerkundliche Mitteilungen|volume=10|pages=61–71|language=de}}</ref> Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire. This is similar to a practice of "[[anti-vampire burial]]": burying sharp objects, such as sickles, with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=158}}

[[Decapitation]] was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the [[buttocks]] or away from the body.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=73}} This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=157}}

[[File:Vampire skeleton of Sozopol in Sofia PD 2012 06.JPG|thumb|left|800-year-old skeleton found in Bulgaria stabbed through the chest with an iron rod<ref name="bulg"/>|alt=See caption]]
[[Romani people]] drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near [[Venice]], a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006.<ref>Reported by Ariel David, "Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice", 13 March 2009, [[Associated Press]] via [[Yahoo! News]], [https://archive.today/20211014180118/https://www.webcitation.org/5fFdDvCQQ?url=http://fe8.story.media.ac4.yahoo.com/news/us/story/ap/20090313/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_vampire_of_venice/print archived]; also by Reuters, published under the headline "Researchers find remains that support medieval 'vampire'" in ''The Australian'', 13 March 2009, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090317093300/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25180518-30417,00.html archived] with photo (scroll down).</ref> In [[Bulgaria]], over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as [[plough]] bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered.<ref name="bulg">{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18334106 | title='Vampire' skeletons found in Bulgaria near Black Sea | work=BBC News | date=6 June 2012 | access-date=22 October 2019 | archive-date=24 April 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424154013/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18334106 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In Southeastern Europe, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling [[holy water]] on the body, or by [[exorcism]]. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the [[coffin]] was taken. For resistant cases, the body was [[dismembered]] and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In [[Old Saxony|Saxon regions]] of Germany, a [[lemon]] was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=154}}