The Vampire Field at Pień

Grave 75

On August 30, 2022, a team from the Institute of Archaeology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń cleared the soil off a burial they numbered 75. A curved iron sickle lay across the woman's throat, blade turned inward, and a triangular iron padlock was fastened around the big toe of her left foot, hanging open. Radiocarbon dating places her death between 1620 and 1674, and she was 17 to 19 years old. The sickle handle was cut from birch, alder, or maple. Analysis published on July 30, 2026, in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports described a third measure. The extensive green discoloration associated with copper was observed primarily on the palate, extending into the nasal cavity, the base of the skull, and the first two cervical vertebrae. It was already visible on the day of discovery, immediately after the skull had been cleaned, and the authors rule out a coin as its source. The copper-containing object, or objects, was placed in the mouth, probably in the throat area, shortly after death or immediately before burial. The authors emphasize that this is the first documented burial in which a sickle, a padlock, and traces of an additional object placed in the oral cavity were all used together as measures intended to protect the living against the deceased. DNA placed her maternal line in haplogroup J1c2c1, a lineage with roots in Scandinavia and virtually absent in modern Slavic populations, while isotopes in her childhood teeth say she grew up in or near Pień. The team calls her Zosia.

The rest of the field

Archaeologists have opened 101 graves from the 17th century at Pień, and counts of the unusual ones vary by source, from at least a dozen to at least 30: a burial placed face down, stones deposited in graves (including around the skull), sickles, padlocks, and a child interred in a double grave together with an adult male and arranged in a position resembling a cross. In July 2023, the team opened the grave alongside hers and found a child aged 5 to 7, face down, with a triangular padlock at the foot. The child in grave 92 was identified as a boy through ancient-DNA analysis, as confirmed by lead archaeologist Dariusz Poliński. He has directed the work here since 2005 and has said the cemetery may be the largest of its kind in Poland. It lies on a slope by a crossroads, away from the village and from any church. Previously, during the second half of the 10th and the first half of the 11th century, the area served as an early medieval cemetery with richly furnished chamber graves belonging to members of the local elite who inhabited a nearby stronghold situated above a cut-off bend of the Vistula River. Researchers read the 17th-century layer as Protestant, and as a burial place for people the community would not lie alongside everyone else. What put any one of them there, Zosia included, is recorded nowhere.

What is there now

Until 2025, the parcel was an arable field and was being plowed, and archaeologists spent years asking for it to be protected. On April 23, 2025, the commune of Dąbrowa Chełmińska signed a notarial deed taking it over, transferred at no cost from KOWR, the national agricultural land agency, and an archaeological park at Pień now sits on the commune's list of planned projects. Nothing has been built. There is no sign, no path, and no marker. Local reporting describes stones left on the ground above the place where grave 75 was opened.

The cemetery field belongs to the commune of Dąbrowa Chełmińska and is not fenced, but nothing has been built on it: no sign, no parking, and no path. It is bare ground between working farmland, so it is best practice to keep to field edges and to leave gates as they were found.

The nearest place with opening hours is the palace and park complex at Ostromecko, ul. Bydgoska 9, a short drive away. From October 1 to April 28, it opens Tuesday through Friday, 11am to 4pm, and weekends, 11am to 5pm. From April 29 to September 30, it opens Tuesday through Friday, 11am to 5pm, and weekends, 11am to 6pm. Admission is 25 zł, 15 zł reduced, and 50 zł for a family, covering both palaces and the park.

Ostromecko gave the Zosia reconstruction its first public showing on November 15, 2025, as a one-off ticketed event rather than a standing exhibit, and no permanent home for it had been announced as of August 2026, so it is worth checking the palace calendar before planning a visit around seeing her. Bydgoszcz is the nearest city with rail and air connections.