There is a neat article in the Telegraph today about a burial found in Poland where the corpses heads have been severed and buried between their legs.  The article speculates that the corpses may have been suspected vampires.  Apparently there are no good clues to date the bodies and so their age is pure speculation.  I don't know about vampires but the technique of burying the head between the legs is an old one and was used for several different reasons vampirism among them.  I would guess it is more likely that the bodies were people suspected of demonic possession or sorcery than vampires.  To my knowledge the spread of the idea of vampirism dates to the early 19th century and the other causes were common throughout Europe from medieval times forward.  Witchcraft was an especially common accusation.  The town of Gerolzhofen in Germany where my wife went to school has a place just outside the old walls where they burned witches.  Their are reliefs of figures supposed to ward off bad luck nearby, the funniest one is below.