<p><strong>The discovery of a 700-year-old skeleton in <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/bulgaria-guide/">Bulgaria</a>—seen at the country's National Museum of History in June—offers evidence that the fear of vampires is far older than <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Enriched-Classics-Bram-Stoker/dp/0743477367">Bram Stoker's <em>Dracula</em></a><em>. </em></strong></p> <p>The "vampire" was found entombed among church ruins in the Black Sea town of <a href="http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/map-machine#s=h&amp;c=42.41966762851923,%2027.696866989135746&amp;z=12">Sozopol (map)</a> earlier in the month. The skeleton had been stabbed in the chest with an iron rod (upper right), which was in the tomb next to the body.</p> <p>In addition, the skeleton's teeth had been pulled. Scholars believe the rod and tooth-pulling were techniques villagers used to prevent dead men from turning into vampires.</p> <p>The vampire obsession dates back millennia in countries across Europe.</p> <p>"In graves thousands of years old, skeletons have been found staked, tied up, buried facedown, decapitated ... all well-attested ways of preempting the [attacks] of wandering corpses," wrote former National Geographic historian Mark Collins Jenkins in his book <em><a href="http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/books/science-and-space/vampire-forensics---hardcover?prevNav=true">Vampire Forensics</a>. </em></p> <p>(Also see<a href="http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2010/06/vampire-expert-digs-his-fangs-into-true-blood-twilight.html"> "Vampire Expert Digs His Fangs into <em>True Blood, Twilight."</em></a>)</p> <p>—<em>Claire Saravia</em></p> <p><em></em></p>