Interesting your post, @ladyrebecca. I suppose there is a lot of anthropological and archaeological material on that subject. Death rituals (funeral and other) are so diverse in the world. I remember that dense and accurate book Man before death by the historian Philippe Ariès.
As you say all the legend about vampires goes back to very remote times. The fictional narrations of John Polidori, The Vampire (1819), and Bram Stoker, "Dracula" (1897), immersed in the Gothic and romantic atmosphere that characterized the European 19th century, are of great value for their literary dissemination. And then, with Nosferatu, a symphony of horror (1922) by Murnau, he goes on to the cinema. From then on, a long mass and commercial production has even impoverished this legend.
Death will continue to be the subject of our popular speculation and creative imagination.
Greetings.