Pliny the Younger wrote what was the first recorded ghost story in the first century AD. A specter was haunting a house in Athens and it was as scary 2,000 years ago as modern ghost stories are today.
Then, as now, if you see a ghost, or a vampire, or a zombie, and if no one else does, you are considered special, shall we say. But what if your family, friends, and neighbors believe the story? Well, now you have a truly scary situation because the scary stuff is considered the truth.
Scientists are digging up, literally, all sort of evidence of scary beliefs.
In 2015, archaeologists working in Poland began discovering graves of people buried 500 years ago in the fashion of vampires. Two women in their 30s, a man about 40, and an adolescent girl were buried with sickles pinning them into their graves. In the same cemetery, a child, about five years old, was found buried face down with a shackle on his leg. All those techniques were part of the vampire lore of the time, techniques intended to keep the undead from rising. Scientists think the older woman had distinctive protruding teeth, which might have contributed to her reputation.
All of that contributes to the chilling reality that a vampire story can be fun or eerie, but believing it can be dangerous for the people targeted.
Luckily, only 13 percent of people polled in 2022 by YouGov said they believed in vampires. But, 45 percent said they believed in ghosts and the same number said they believed in demons. The house is still haunted.
