Czechs in History Creatures of the Night
October 31st - Halloween - is just around the corner, a date that historically marks the end of the harvest and the slow ushering in of long dark winter. A time of year humans long believed saw the fading of the boundary between the living and the dead, so that shades again walked the earth, among them - Vampyres - stalking the living for their blood. In the programme we'll be talking to a leading expert on the vampire myth, as well as with an archaeologist who uncovered a notable "vampire" burial site just outside of Prague 30 years ago. Human remains there date back to the 10th century; like other grave sites in neighbouring Moravia and Slovakia corpses there were tied down - even beheaded - to prevent suspected vampires from returning to terrorise local villages.
Giuseppe Maiello
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