简介：National Geographic explores centuries of vampire lore and legend—unearthing new science and insights on superstition and psychology. Did vampires roam the earth in the time of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci? Historical records indicate that people thought so and even describe how to safely bury them. Now, more than 400 years later, a 16th-century mass grave is unearthed near Venice that includes a skeleton with a brick apparently inserted between the jaws of the skull. This appears to be evidence of a macabre ritual designed to "kill" a vampire and sparks a highly unusual forensic investigation. 　　For most of us, the vampire is a fictional count who became a horror movie icon. But is there more to the legend than fiction? Do the undead actually walk among us? From a self-proclaimed modern-day blood-drinking vampire, to a bishop who claims to have exorcised vampires and demons, to experts in anthropology, forensics, folklore and vampirism, Is It Real? Vampires sheds light on why this archetypal image has haunted us for so long. 　　Venice, 1575 - the jeweled city of northern Italy is in the throes of unimaginable horror. One of the worst plagues ever to strike mankind: the Black Death. Mass graves swell thousands of bodies. 　　A legend grows that a vampire known as a "Shroud-eater" is the cause of the plague. The Shroud-eater feasts on corpses, then rises from the earth to infect the living. More than four hundred years later Italian forensic anthropologist and CSI specialist Matteo Borrini leads a team excavating a 16th Century mass grave on one of Venice's outlying islands. He uncovers a skeleton unlike any he had ever seen before. A brick appears to have been inserted between the jaws of the skull. Why?. The answer shocks him. He believes the object was part of a macabre ritual designed to kill a vampire. The discovery launches Borrini on a forensic investigation unlike any he has ever attempted - as he attempts to put a face - a life - to the Vampire of Venice.…