( CNN ) -- Popular literature would have it that the vampire 's preferred habitat is Transylvania ( or , if you 're under 15 , the slightly less glamorous Forks , Washington ) . But modern day vampire hunters might better focus their attention on a little-known area of northwestern Poland , where earlier this month a suspected vampire grave was exhumed . Slawomir Gorka , who led the dig at a marketplace in the small West Pomeranian town of Kamien Pomorski , told local website kamienskie.info that several unusual aspects of the burial `` indicate that it is a vampire burial '' . Teeth had been removed , a fragment of rock was inserted in the mouth , and a leg had been staked ( presumably to prevent the body rising from the grave ) . And this is n't the first time an interment in Poland has been deemed vampiric . Last July , archaeologists uncovered four decapitated skeletons , their heads placed between their legs , at a construction site in Gliwice , southern Poland . Both the Gliwice and Kamien Pomorski graves are estimated to date back to the 16th century . The burials may sound gruesome , but they are befitting of early medieval Polish folklore 's particularly grisly interpretation of the vampire myth . `` Specific to Polish vampires is that they are known for eating their own flesh and burial garments when they rise from the dead , '' says Titus Hjelm , who convenes a course on vampires for the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at University College London . He adds that this may explain the stone placed in the mouth of the skeleton . Fear of vampires was strong among Eastern Europeans in the medieval period . Professor Martyn Rady , a colleague of Hjelm 's , posits the folk tales spread from Serbia to surrounding countries following a report sent by Austrian military authorities to their superiors in Vienna . It told of a mercenary soldier who had been turned into a vampire and infected his victims , who when exhumed from their own graves were found to have fresh blood in their cavities . The report was intercepted before reaching the Austrian capital and published in newspapers . The Polish had particular reason to fear vampires rising from their graves , Hjelm explains . `` According to some sources , Poles thought that vampires were born , rather than 'made ' , '' he says . `` They were normal people who could live normal lives , not aristocrats living in distant castles . The problems only started when these people died . They could come back to live with their families and even impregnate their wives . '' This may account for the precautions taken during burial . Hjelm adds the notion of vampires being creatures of the night only appeared relatively recently in the 1922 film `` Nosferatu '' . However , some experts warn against presuming all such unconventional burials were because of a fear of vampires . Kamil Kajkowski , an archaeologist with the West-Cassubian Museum in BytÃ³w , northern Poland , admits a number of strange medieval mortuary practices have been discovered during digs in Poland , the most common being those where the body is in the prone position , decapitated , or covered with stones . But the idea is these burials may just as well represent punishment for criminals rather than suspected vampires . That said , Kajkowski concedes the most recent discovery `` is certainly unusual '' . `` The pierced thigh-bone and a stone inside the mouth clearly indicate that a range of atypical practices with ritual undertones were performed , '' he says . `` ( The stone ) might reflect the desire to create some kind of supernatural 'barrier ' between the dead and the world of the living . '' Such peculiar last rites are not confined to medieval Poland . Kajkowski says the last recorded instance of this kind of deviant burial was in 1913 . As with the skeletons found in Gliwice last year , the head had been cut off and placed by the legs . `` Perhaps such a placement of the head ensured the dead would not be able to 'reach it ' and put it back on his neck , '' he suggests . Vampiric or not , the strange range of historical graves in Poland indicate the country held deep beliefs around the ritualistic burial of certain citizens . Leszek Gardela , from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of RzeszÃ³w , is currently working on a research project into the phenomenon . `` Unusual mortuary practices have fascinated Polish scholars since the 1950s ( when the first were discovered ) , '' she says . `` But so far they remain unknown to a wider international audience . It is high time to change this . '' 6 destinations with a dark side . Send in your best shots from Poland . Read more about CNN 's sponsorship policy .
Exhumed skeleton in Poland has unusal bural practices . Some Polish medieval burial was related to legends of vampires . Vampire is strong in the Eastern European country .