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Ancient Greeks took steps to deter zombies

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Rider on the Storm
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« on: June 27, 2015, 01:38:18 am »

Ancient Greeks took steps to deter zombies
Posted on Wednesday, 24 June, 2015




The Greeks were afraid that the dead would come back to life. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Bernard Gagnon
The concept of the dead rising from their graves is certainly not unique to today's movies and TV shows.
In a cemetery near the coastal town of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily archaeologists discovered several bodies that the ancient Greeks had deliberately pinned down using heavy objects as a way to ensure that they would never be able to rise from the dead.

One of the individuals appeared to have died from a mysterious illness that had worried authorities to such an extent that several large ceramic fragments had been placed on top of the remains.

A second body, that of a teenager, had also been pinned in place by five large stones.

"Necrophobia, or the fear of the dead, is a concept that has been present in Greek culture from the Neolithic period to the present," said archaeologist Carrie Sulosky Weaver.

Strangely there were also indications that some of the local inhabitants had been attempting to accomplish the complete opposite by performing rituals intended to summon the dead.

Tablets ( known as 'Katadesmoi' ) transcribed with spells and curses were also found at the site.

"The tablets contained petitions that were addressed to underworld dieties who would command the spirits of the dead to fulfill the request of the petitioner," said Weaver.

"Although these acts appear to be contradictory, together they provide a powerful testimony to the ways in which the ancient Greeks conceptualized the dead."

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/ancient-greeks-were-afraid-of-zombies-150622.htm
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Rider on the Storm
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« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2015, 01:39:01 am »



Typical flexed burial from Passo Marinaro.

C.L. Sulosky Weaver, courtesy of the Regional Museum of Kamarina
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Rider on the Storm
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« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2015, 01:40:07 am »

The ancient Greeks believed in ghostly versions of the dead who would rise from their graves and stalk the living, according to deviant burials unearthed in the necropolis of a Greek colony in Sicily.

Known as Passo Marinaro, the cemetery near the coastal town of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily, was in use from the 5th through 3rd centuries B.C. The necropolis has yielded approximately 2,905 burials; more than half contained grave goods, mostly terracotta vases, but also figurines and metal coins.

Two of the tombs were unique.

One body, found in a tomb labeled 653, contained an individual of unknown sex, who apparently experienced a period of serious malnutrition or illness in life.

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“What is unusual about Tomb 653 is that the head and feet of the individual are completely covered by large amphora fragments,” Carrie Sulosky Weaver, an archaeologist at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote in Popular Archaeology.

An amphora is a large, two handled ceramic vessel that was generally used for storing wine and olive oil.

“The heavy amphora fragments found in Tomb 653 were presumably intended to pin the individual to the grave and prevent it from seeing or rising,” Sulosky Weaver said.

The other burial, labelled 693, contained the remains of a child of indeterminate sex about 8 to 13 years old. No signs of diseases were found on the remains, nevertheless the child was buried with five large stones placed on top of the body.

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“It appears that these stones were used to trap the body in its grave,” Sulosky Weaver said.

Her research will be featured in a forthcoming book, “The Bioarchaeology of Classical Kamarina: Life and Death in Greek Sicily,” which will be published by the University Press of Florida in September.

It is unknown why the occupants of those burials were pinned in their graves, but “their special treatment suggests that necrophobic beliefs and practices were present in Greek Sicily,” Sulosky Weaver said.

“Necrophobia, or the fear of the dead, is a concept that has been present in Greek culture from the Neolithic period to the present,” she added.

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Katadesmoi, tablets inscribed with magical spells, were also found at the cemetery, suggesting that some inhabitants of Kamarina used curses and spells to raise the dead from their graves.

“The tablets contained petitions that were addressed to underworld dieties who would command the spirits of the dead to fulfill the request of the petitioner,” Sulosky Weaver told Discovery News.

She noted that such evidence, though limited, demonstrates the desires to both suppress and invoke the special dead.

“Although these acts appear to be contradictory, together they provide a powerful testimony to the ways in which the ancient Greeks conceptualized the dead,” Sulosky Weaver said.
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Thorvir Hrothgaard
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« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2015, 01:54:23 am »

Other cultures took these kinds of steps too. And to this day, no zombies... Hey, maybe they're onto something.
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Thorvir Hrothgaard
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« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2015, 01:54:48 am »

Was it zombies or vampires? There was a belief at the time that illness was spread by the undead returning and infecting the family or town they lived with or in. Vampires hadn't developed into the sexy blood drinkers of today yet.
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DieChecker
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« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2015, 01:56:58 am »

Death by "pressing" was a punishment for witchcraft in the UK and Europe.People were lighter back then. When they died, they lost mass, and eventually became lighter than air. Thus, the heavy stones to keep them pinned down.
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Medium of the Damned
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« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2015, 01:59:11 am »

Doesn't seem contradictory to me..... Some people you want to stay dead, and some you want to come back. Seems to me putting 5 feet of dirt on top of someone would work better then a couple stones, but maybe they were to hold the body down while the hole was filled in?
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