The Ancient Greeks Were Just As Afraid Of A Zombie Apocalypse As Present Day Humans

While many people these days think worrying about an impending zombie apocalypse is a new fear, archaeologists can now turn that concept on its head with the discovery that ancient Greeks were also concerned with the undead.

According to burials unearthed in the necropolis of a Greek colony in Sicily, the ancient Greeks believed the undead — or zombies as we currently know them — would rise from their graves and stalk the living. As a result of this, some graves found in the necropolis in Sicily have items placed over the ancient Greek bodies in an effort to prevent them from rising from the dead as zombies.

This burial site, known as Passo Marinaro, is near the coastal town of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily and was used by the ancient Greeks from the 5th to 3rd century B.C. According to a report on Discovery News, approximately 2,905 burials were unearthed. Many of these graves contained typical grave goods including terracotta pots, figurines, and coins, but two graves held something more sinister.

A body of undetermined sex was found in a tomb labeled 653. This person had suffered from serious malnutrition or serious illness at some stage of its life. It is possible this illness had something to do with the ancient Greeks fearing the person would rise up after death like the zombies we see in TV shows such as AMC’s The Walking Dead. Carrie Sulosky Weaver, an archaeologist at the University of Pittsburgh, explains her findings to Popular Archaeology.

“What is unusual about Tomb 653 is that the head and feet of the individual are completely covered by large amphora fragments… The heavy amphora fragments found in Tomb 653 were presumably intended to pin the individual to the grave and prevent it from seeing or rising.”

However, the suggestion that an illness unknown to the ancient Greeks caused their concern for the dead turning into zombies is proven wrong with the discovery of the second body, that of a child approximately between eight and 13 years old, who showed no sign of illness. This child was restrained in its grave by five large stones.

As well as these two ancient Greek bodies pinned to their graves, tablets inscribed with magic spells, called Katadesmoi were also found at Passo Marinaro. This led archaeologists to believe there were ancient Greeks not only using magic to protect their towns from zombies — but may have been conjuring up the undead as well.

“The tablets contained petitions that were addressed to underworld deities who would command the spirits of the dead to fulfill the request of the petitioner… Although these acts appear to be contradictory, together they provide a powerful testimony to the ways in which the ancient Greeks conceptualized the dead.”

Weaver also suggests these zombies were raised to exact revenge on the living.

“Greeks imagined scenarios in which reanimated corpses rose from their graves, prowled the streets and stalked unsuspecting victims, often to exact retribution denied to them in life.”

Carrie Sulosky Weaver will be releasing her findings on the ancient Greeks’ fear of zombies as well as their other beliefs in her upcoming book, The Bioarchaeology of Classical Kamarina: Life and Death in Greek Sicily. It will be published by the University Press of Florida in September 2015.

Let us know your thoughts on the ancient Greeks’ belief in zombies and the undead by commenting below!

[Image credits: C.L. Sulosky Weaver / Regional Museum of Kamarina]