More than 100 graves showing skeletons with stakes through the hearts and mutilated bones have been uncovered in a 7000-year-old town in Bulgaria, the Daily Beast reports.

An article titled "Bulgaria's Vampire Graveyards" is referring to the "vampire burial" uncovered at the site of Perperikon (and not "Thracian" as in the text), an ancient Thracian town that has become a major tourist destination over the years.

A skeleton which has a partially crushed skull and a round stake appearing from the left side of the skeleton's chest shows the man underwent a "post-death" mutilation that included the removal of the lower half of his leg.

The aim was to stop the man, deemed "a vampire", from returning back to life.

People who died from certain ailments were believed in the past to be able to become "vampires" in the afterlife, returning to prey upon the population.

Archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov is quoted as saying a number of skeletons have been found with metal rings pinning the bodies down in graves covered in heavy stones.

Incapacitation was another measure preventing the buried to rise from the dead.

Last year Ovcharov argued "many" in Bulgaria continued the practice as recently as 25 years ago.

Romania and Bulgaria "have born the brunt of the attention" about vempires to the extent that "certain towns have begun to market themselves as part of a "vampire trail" for curious visitors."

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