Channel 5 - Mysteries of the Vampire Skeletons Revealed (2011)

Nowadays, vampires are a mainstay of TV, film and literature, but in medieval Europe they were a terrifyingly real prospect and omens of death and doom. Taking the archaeological discovery of mutilated medieval skeletons buried in the west of Ireland as a starting point, Mysteries of the Vampire Skeletons traces the rise of the vampire from medieval folk terror to 21st-century fantasy.
In summer 2007, at a site in Ireland, archaeologists were uncovering layers of graves. They were astonished to find two skeletons with large stones lodged in their jaws. Three deviant burials were found in a dig in Kilteasheen, and a skeleton was unearthed, whose legs had been wrapped around a boulder, in such a way – it has been suggested – to stop the corpse from walking. This was followed by the discovery of two skeletons who seemed to have stones thrust in their mouths.
This was exceptional; all the other skeletons in the cemetery had been normal Christian burials. The archaeologists believe that the skeletons were treated as if they were 'revenants' – individuals who might return from the dead to prey on the living. It's a fascinating journey first into the medieval mind.