Ancient graves were discovered in Poland, the remains of which were closed with a lock.

Polish archaeologists found the remains of a child and a 17th-century woman chained in the graves. According to researchers, the dead were mistaken for vampires and chained to coffins to prevent them from leaving, CNN reports.

The bones of a 6- or 7-year-old child are the latest discoveries at a cemetery in the northern Polish village of Pien, which comes from an era when ghosts, zombies and other supernatural phenomena were taken seriously.

A woman’s corpse is discovered in a cemetery with a padlock on her leg and a sickle around her neck, indicating that she is a vampire.

“This is a cemetery for rejected people who undoubtedly fear death, and maybe even life … who are suspected of being in contact with evil spirits, people who behave differently in some ways,” said Dariusz Polinski, researcher medieval burials at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun.

The boy was buried bent over with a triangular iron lock under his foot, probably in an attempt to prevent him from sitting up and leaving the grave, he added. Also, he said, the child’s grave was desecrated at some point after burial and all the bones were removed except for the legs.

Archaeologists have found other methods used to restrain the “living dead”, and Polinsky describes strange practices found in some burials. In particular, he mentions a large number of graves with stones placed in different places, for example, in the elbow, the throat or the neck. These stones, as people believed at the time, were supposed to protect against the deceased.

It was previously reported that scientists have solved the mystery of a human vampire whose remains were discovered in Connecticut. He was buried at the beginning of the 19th century according to the “vampire rite.”

A 19th-century vampire hunter’s kit is up for auction in Britain.