Belgian archaeologists digging at the site of the ancient Roman city of Sagalassos in southwestern Turkey recently unearthed a most unusual burial. The tomb held the cremated remains of a man who’d lived in the second century AD, and what made this burial so remarkable is that it was sealed with two dozen bricks and an additional layer of plaster. Topping everything off, more than three dozen bent nails were sprinkled around the edges of the tomb as well, presumably as magic talismans meant to keep the deceased person trapped inside.

According to the Belgian archaeologists, all these steps were taken to prevent the return of a wandering spirit, who might have the capability of rising from the grave even after cremation. In an article just published in the journal Antiquity, the study authors explained that the ancient Romans feared the “restless dead” and would take magical precautions to protect themselves from these potentially dangerous beings.

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“The burial was closed off with not one, not two, but three different ways that can be understood as attempts to shield the living from the dead—or the other way around,” study first author  Johan Claeys , an archaeologist at Catholic University Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium, told Live Science .

Read more: Ancient Origins