What bizarre and terrifying ‘treasures’ from long-gone ancient civilizations are still hidden in crypts, caves and deep within the earth? Most archaeologists may spend their days painstakingly brushing sand off pieces of pottery, but occasionally, they unearth evidence of the darker side of humanity – cannibalism, sacrifice, mass murder, deadly paranoia about vampires and witches, and even chemical warfare. These 15 archaeological finds of ancient human remains are among the most grisly, frightening and fascinating.

Vampire of Venice

Among the corpses of medieval plague victims was one very curious find: a skull with a brick shoved so forcefully between its jaws, they were broken. The technique was used on suspected vampires in Europe during this time, especially when natural biological processes after death resulted in dark blood-like liquid streaming from the mouth. Researchers have determined that not only was this elderly woman feared a vampire after her death, she may have been accused of witchcraft before she met her end. Most people didn’t live to be her age, estimated at 60-71 years, and many medieval Europeans believed that the devil gave the elderly powers to cheat death. Older women were particularly suspect because it was assumed that they had little to live for, and were vulnerable to offers of power.

The Screaming Mummies

Imagine opening a sarcophagus to find a mummy that seems to be screaming for all eternity. In the past, when ‘screaming mummies‘ were discovered, archaeologists assumed that they must have been buried alive or killed in some other painful manner. Now, however, they usually agree that mummies are commonly found with their jaws open due to their heads falling back after death. The most famous screaming mummy is Unknown Man E, an Egyptian mummy found in 1886, who could be the murderous son of Ramses III. Another is even more shocking, with its hands covering its face in apparent terror; it was among the remains of the Chachapoya Indians of Peru.

Pile of Headless Vikings

Evidence of a shocking massacre was discovered when archaeologists unearthed 51 thousand-year-old skulls – along with another pit containing their headless bodies – in Weymouth, UK. Found in 2009, these young male Vikings were brutally slain sometime between 910 and 1030 CE. Analysis of their teeth confirmed that they were from Scandinavia. They were likely war captives of the Anglo-Saxons, executed by having their heads hacked off.

Neanderthal Cannibals

The bones of twelve neanderthals found in a cave in Spain were cut and snapped, indicating that they were likely ‘processed’ by fellow neanderthals as food. The possible family group, which included three adult males, three adult females, three adolescents, two children and an infant, is one of the most significant examples of cannibalism among neanderthals. “There are many different markings in many different bones in all 12 individuals, including traditional cut marks to disarticulate bones and remove muscle insertions, snapping and fracturing of long bones to extract the marrow,”researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox told LiveScience.

Bathhouse Baby Disposal

How and why were the bones of nearly 100 infants discarded like trash in a late Roman, early Byzantine sewer beneath a bathhouse in Israel? Found in 1988 in Ashkelon, the remains indicate that the babies died before three days of age, and show no signs of disease or skeletal malformation. While scholars hypothesized that the babies were girls, since female infanticide was common during that time, tests have since shown that many were male. The reasoning behind their death is still a mystery.

The First Leper

The earliest archaeological evidence of leprosy is found in a 4,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in India in 2009. Leprosy is difficult to study because the bacteria that causes it is tricky to culture for research, and scientists are still unsure of exactly when and where it originated. This skeleton was not only the oldest leper ever found, it was also the first evidence of leprosy in ancient India, supporting the idea that the disease migrated between Africa and Asia during a period of urbanization, growing population density and new trade routes.

Murdered Bog Bodies

The peat bogs of northwestern Europe have turned out to be one of the richest sources of ancient human remains in the world, preserving bodies so perfectly that they sometimes still contain blood and stomach contents. ‘Bog bodies‘ such as the Grauballe Man, pictured, date from 8,000 B.C.E. to the early medieval period. It seems that these people were not buried in the peat bogs, nor did they simply die there – they died violently. Researchers believe they were most likely sacrificed, or executed as punishment for crimes or perceived flaws.

Skulls Used as Cups

Three human skulls found in Gough’s Cave, Somerset, England were carefully worked into the shape of bowls, indicating that they were used to drink from. At 14,700 years old, these are the oldest skull cups ever discovered, and they were surrounded by other human remains that had been snapped to get to the marrow inside, suggesting cannibalism.

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Frightening Archaeological Finds 15 Odd Human Remains

106 years ago, San Francisco was in ruins. The earthquake of 1906 destroyed over 80% of the city, with 30 fires that broke out as a result burning down 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks.  But reconstruction preserved much of the city’s architecture, and today you’d never know that it occurred at all – as evidenced by a set of amazing composite images by photographer Shawn Clover.

Clover has released his painstakingly researched and constructed images in two parts, with the first released in 2010. Reminiscent of Sergey Larenkov’s Ghosts of WWII series, in which archived photographs of war damage were mixed with modern photos of the same sites, Clover’s images display the regeneration of one of America’s greatest cities.

The color photographs of modern-day scenes in the city contrast with the black-and-white images of destruction – buildings half-collapsed, damaged roads revealing yawning subterranean pits, facades blackened, trolleys smashed.

“To put these photos together, I first create a catalog of historical photos that look like they have potential to be blended,” says Clover on his website. “Unfortunately most of these photos end up on the digital cutting room floor because there’s simply no way to get the same photo today because either a building or a tree is in the way.”

“Once I get a good location, I get everything lined up just right. My goal is to stand in the exact spot where the original photographer stood. Doing this needs to take into account equivalent focal length, how the lens was shifted, light conditions, etc. I take plenty of shots, each nudged around a bit at each location. Just moving one foot to the left changes everything.”

Look into New York City’s past, at the locations where iconic album cover photos were taken, in a series of photo montages by Bob Egan called ‘PopSpots.’ Egan has tracked down the exact places where photos of Bob Dylan, Neil Young,  Simon & Garfunkel and more were taken in the 1960s and 1970s and transposed the album covers onto modern-day photographs.

“Manhattan is constantly being torn down and rebuilt anew, and I’m trying to find these places while they are still around,” says Egan. At the PopSpots website, he runs down the process of finding and photographing each site. It can take a lot of work to identify the exact spot; at times, Egan has to pay attention to minute details in the photographs. Others, like Springsteen standing in front of Public School 111 on the cover of ‘River’, are much easier.

For example, he explains some of his sleuthing to spot the exact subway platform upon which Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon stood approximately 47 years ago for the cover of ‘Wednesday Morning, 3AM.’ Several websites identified it as the platform at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, but to find the exact spot he had to look to things like the height of the support beams.

Egan has also begun to branch out beyond album covers, and outside New York City. He photographed the bridge that was the setting for Edvard Munch’s iconic painting, ‘The Scream.’ See the whole collection at PopSpotsNYC.com.

During the dry part of the year, Mexcaltitán looks like any other island off the coast of Mexico, save for its unusual shape. But in the rainy season, the streets flood and locals must take to canoes to navigate their neighborhoods. Mexcaltitán is known as ‘Mexican Venice’, and some believe that it was the original Aztlan, birthplace of the Aztecs.

(top image via: odd stuff; above images via: mickou)

From above it looks like an X in a circle, just 1,300 feet in diameter with five main streets. Located about 25 miles from Santiago Ixcuilntla in the Mexican state of Nayarit, the island is home to just over 800 people. Promoted by the Mexican government as a “magic place”, it’s now a tourist attraction. The inhabitants make a living with shrimp fishing and handicrafts made from mangrove trees.

(images via: mickou)

The sidewalks are two to four feet above the streets so they remain above water level during moderate flooding. The village is full of colorful buildings topped with traditional terra-cotta tile roofs. In the center of the town is Museo del Origen (Museum of Origin), which contains artifacts of Mesoamerican history and Aztec culture.

(images via: odd stuff)

Nayarit is Aztec country, and local legend has it that the Aztec may have started out on this tiny little island, making it the birthplace of Mexican identity. The island was created by human hands, possibly the Aztecs, in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.