According to custom at that time, people considered bad would have their hearts pierced with an iron bar after death so that they could not become vampires again.
Two such skeletons were found in a cemetery in the Black Sea city of Sozopol.
“This was a common belief in Bulgaria in the 12th-14th centuries. People were very superstitious then,” said the head of the Bulgarian National History Museum Bozhidar Dimitrov.
“Across the country we have found more than 100 such “vampire” burials, mainly of noble figures who considered bloodsucking to be inhumane.”
The discovery in Bulgaria has sparked a movement to find vampires around the world.
