Emily Chan
In 2019, archaeologists from the Australian National University (ANU) discovered 15 sites in Laos containing over a hundred massive 1,000-year-old jars made out of stone.
The stone jars are believed to be associated with the dead. However, nothing is known about the original purpose of the jars or who created them.
In the past, other giant jars filled with the remains of deceased individuals have been identified across hundreds of miles in the unexploded minefields of southeast Asia.
The latest jars were found deep in the remote and mountainous forests of Laos. They are proof that these types of jars were more widespread than originally believed.
Nicholas Skopal, a Ph.D. student from ANU, along with officials from the Lao government, came across 137 jars at various sites.
“These new sites have really only been visited by the occasional tiger hunter. Now that we’ve rediscovered them, we’re hoping to build a clear picture about this culture and how it disposed of its dead,” Skopal said.
Some of the jars weighed several tons, and many of them were mysteriously transported miles away from the quarries they were carved in. It is also unknown why the jars were brought to these specific sites. In addition, there was no evidence of human occupation in the region.
More artifacts were uncovered at the sites, including a collection of elaborately carved discs that were most likely used as grave markers. But strangely enough, the decorated sides of the discs had been buried face down.
“Decorative carving is relatively rare at the jar sites, and we don’t know why some discs have animal imagery, and others have geometric designs,” said Dr. Dougald O’Reilly, a co-leader of the study and an archaeologist at ANU.
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