Everyone knows that the only way to stop a Vampire is to put a brick in its mouth, right?

In a medieval mass grave in Venice, Italy archaeologists found a body with a brick shoved in its mouth. This is the first time that any archaeologists have found actual proof of this practice to ward off vampires. Although it does not mention it in the articles I am assuming that the practice of placing a brick in the mouth of a corpse must have been written down somewhere, otherwise how would the archaeologists know? I don't know about anyone else, but to me this whole brick in the mouth thing seems very counter productive, everyone knows that vampires have super strength and can only be killed with a stake through the heart. Unlike the modern myths, apparently medieval vampires were much easier to dispose of.

The researchers also explain in the article that the reason why people were thought to be vampires is because once a person dies the stomach can release purge fluid, which is a dark blood like liquid. This liquid of finds its way into the decease's nose and mouth and eventually rotted the burial shroud around the face. To the gravediggers that would have reopened the pit grave during a plague the blood around the mouth and the opening in the shroud by the mouth would have looked like a vampire that had chewed through the burial cloth. To me its funny to see how far the myth of vampires has come since then. Previously vampires were seen as spreaders of disease and now today they are revered in movies like Twilight, Blade, and Underworld. While the vampires never do quite escape the stigma of being infected or cursed, even in today's incarnation, it is the fear that they invoke and their supernatural mystic that is now embraced by the people of today, whereas it was to be feared centuries ago.