▲ A reconstruction of the face of an American man in the late 18th century who was framed as a vampire.

(Photo = Live Science)


The face of an American man who was mistaken for a vampire in the late 18th century has been restored.



Vampires are eastern European superstitions that are said to come out of graves at night and suck the blood of living people.



Recently, the American scientific journal Live Science reported that it was revealed that a man in the late 18th century who died under the name of a vampire was actually a tuberculosis patient.



DNA technology company Parabon Nanolabs and forensic scientists analyzed DNA extracted from the remains to reconstruct the face of a man who died of tuberculosis in Connecticut in the late 18th century using a three-dimensional facial reconstruction technique.



The remains of the man, known as 'JB55', were unearthed by archaeologists in 1994.



At the time of excavation, the presumption that he was a vampire was based on several factors: his body was mutilated, his coffin was tacked, and his femur bones were buried in the form of a cross.



At that time, in some areas, it was believed that the 'undead' moving out of digging graves spread diseases to the living and torment them, and it was believed that the body should be destroyed to prevent this.

Vampires are also one of the undead.



Given this, it can be inferred that his body may have been mutilated because he exhibited vampire-like characteristics and behaviors during his lifetime.



Enlarging an image


Later, in 2019, when forensic scientists extracted DNA from the remains, they found that he had arthritis, died of tuberculosis, and was 55 at the time of his death.



Face reconstruction was done through artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning based on data values ​​obtained from DNA.



The research team predicted that he would have pale yellow skin due to tuberculosis and bloodstains around his mouth due to coughing.



An online genealogy database also revealed that he was an ordinary farmer by the name of 'John Barber'.



The name 'JB55' is believed to be derived from the engraving of his initials and the age at the time of his death on Barber's coffin.