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The Romanian region yields its secrets under the careful work of Jonathan Bethard and students from USF and around the world.

When mentions his work in Transylvania and the summer field school he leads excavating a burial yard in a small village there, the conversation unsurprisingly turns to vampires.

Yes, Bethard says he typically responds, he and his students are working on unearthing more than 800 years of history in the Romanian village outside of Odorheiu Secuiesc, which was once a part of Hungary and carries a complex political and social history. No, they haven鈥檛 dug up any vampires 鈥� nor is that the reason why for the past decade Bethard has turned a Medieval former Hungarian village 鈥� once known by the Hungarian name Patakfalva and the later by the Romanian name V膬leni 鈥� at the invitation of local citizens, into a classroom for future archaeologists and forensic scientists.

But vampire legends are a great conversation starter about the summer field school which has educated hundreds of students from USF and around the country, Bethard says. It鈥檚 also an opportunity to share more insight into the fascinating disciplines that allow researchers to piece together centuries of overlapping cultures, conflict and community.

But vampire legends are a great conversation starter about the summer field school which has educated hundreds of students from USF and around the country, Bethard says.

鈥淭he vampire burial is a real thing that鈥檚 been documented. Ironically there are no examples from Romania that I am aware of, but there are from Poland,鈥� says Bethard, an associate professor in USF鈥檚 Department of Anthropology.

鈥淚ronically, there are no examples from Romania that I am aware of, but there are from Poland. You can connect some dots, but you can see where Bram Stoker鈥檚 artistic license come from,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 OK because it鈥檚 giving us at least a starting point to see what鈥檚 reality; what鈥檚 fiction; where is artistic license; and where is the role of geopolitics in how Transylvania shaped during the 20th century. There鈥檚 a lot to think about.鈥�

For the past decade, Bethard has been co-director of the excavation and laboratory project along with Katie Zejdlik, an associate professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University, after learning about the village鈥檚 interest in preserving its history. While working as an instructor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine (now called Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine), he noticed an advertisement from the region鈥檚 museum seeking a director for a lab-based field school in Transylvania. With an undergraduate, master鈥檚 and doctorate from the University of Tennessee 鈥� where the famed 鈥渂ody farm鈥� revolutionized forensic training, scholarship and practice 鈥� Bethard has worked around the world, including as an instructor for numerous courses in forensic anthropology with the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program in Colombia and Algeria and with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tbilisi, Georgia. was on bioarcheology of the Inca Empire in Peru.

In Patakfalva/ V膬leni, the village鈥檚 church and its surrounding property have been in use for centuries, but knowledge about how its generations lived was limited. An earthquake in 1802 destroyed the original village church, which was then razed and rebuilt with a cemetery created on top of the site. 鈥淚f you dig in a Medieval church yard, you are going to find human remains,鈥� Bethard notes.

To get there, visitors fly to Bucharest and then travel through the Carpathian Mountains. The small village where they do their work is within walking distance of Odorheiu Secuiesc, which has a population of about 30,000. The region was the site of the southwestern front during World War I, which left the borders between Romania and Hungary redrawn. But the community and its culture remain deeply influenced by Hungarian people and the long echoes of the historic conflicts in the region, which includes the spark that lit the fuse of World War I 鈥� the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

About 85 students from USF and around the country participate in the project each summer. About two-thirds of the students work on the painstaking excavating the burial site while a second group works on identifying bones that are collected, extracting any information they can to develop a biological profile of the person. The grave excavations are particularly sensitive, with students toiling in the summer heat and using brushes to gradually remove centuries of dirt from the bones while hunting for artifacts that might also be buried around the gravesite. It is not easy work, Bethard notes.

Unlike forensic scientists, who seek to discover an individual鈥檚 history in their examination of remains, bioarcheologists seek to tell a community鈥檚 story through their collective findings Bethard explained. 

This summer USF Provost Prasant Mohapatra, USF World Vice President Kiki Caruson and Education Abroad Director Amanda Maurer visited the field school and spent the day participating in some of the field work. The school is supported by USF World.

鈥淚 feel a sense of responsibility to provide my local colleagues there the information they want to know that we can help them with,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ver the last 10 years, we鈥檝e really tried to understand this complex history. It takes this level of commitment to be as thorough and exhaustive as we can be.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 necessarily realize this project would take up such a prominent part of our lives, but it has, and we are OK with it because it鈥檚 just so interesting. We are providing a very rare opportunity for students to engage in this field and for students from the U.S. to get out of their comfort zone for a month or two.鈥�

Planning for the 2025 summer field school is underway. To learn more about the program and apply for it, . Read more about Dr. Bethard鈥檚 work around the world .