KHÁM PHÁ MỚI VỀ BÍ MẬT CỦA CÁNH ĐỒNG CHUM -LAO./-Mt68
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Laos burial jar find reveals centuries-old family rituals
and trade links.
Ancient burial uncovered: A large stone jar held remains of at least 37 people, revealing use in secondary burial rites between the 9th and 12th centuries CE.
Trade links revealed: Glass beads from South
India and Mesopotamia show remote Lao communities were tied to extensive Asian
and Middle Eastern trade networks.
Historic mystery reframed: The discovery
challenges earlier beliefs about the jars’ Iron Age origins, pointing instead
to evolving multi-generational funerary traditions.
Detailed excavation report unveils secrets of Laos' giant
stone jar
Researchers spent three field seasons from 2022 to 2024
excavating Jar 1 at Site 75 on the Xieng Khouang Plateau, a massive vessel
measuring 1.3 metres tall and over 2 metres wide. Inside, they found densely
packed, disarticulated bones from at least 37 individuals, along with grave
goods including pottery, an iron knife, a copper bell, and 20 glass beads.
Radiocarbon dating indicated the jar was used for secondary burials over
roughly 270 years between about 890 and 1160 CE, suggesting repeated ceremonial
use by family or kin groups. Daily Galaxy + 3
"We determined that it was an example of secondary
interment during the 9th and 12th centuries CE, in which human remains were
deposited after an initial period of decomposition elsewhere."
Dr. Nicholas Skopal
Why these findings rewrite the Plain of Jars' history
The new evidence challenges long-standing interpretations
that the jars served as final resting places dating back to the Southeast Asian
Iron Age. Instead, the remains show the jars were part of a multi-stage
mortuary process, where bodies decomposed elsewhere before bones were
transferred. This reframing aligns the jars’ primary use with the 9th–12th
centuries CE, a period of heightened regional connectivity, and underscores
their role as ceremonial sites for ancestral rites over generations. antiquity.ac.uk
+ 2
From South India to Mesopotamia: tracing the beads'
journey
Chemical analysis of the 20 glass beads found inside the jar
traced their origins to South India, Mesopotamia, and possibly Southeast China
or northern Vietnam. These artefacts reveal that even remote highland
communities in Laos were integrated into expansive trade networks spanning Asia
and the Middle East. The presence of such items alongside human remains
suggests that burial rituals incorporated goods obtained through long-distance
cultural and commercial exchanges. Daily Galaxy + 2
"Additionally, glass beads from within the jar were
chemically analysed and found to have been produced in South India and
Mesopotamia, indicating previously unseen trade and connections between
Southern & Western Asia and the Laotian highlands."
antiquity.ac.uk
Dr. Nicholas Skopal
A landscape of mystery: the Plain of Jars
The Plain of Jars, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019,
consists of hundreds of massive stone vessels scattered across northern Laos,
first surveyed in the 1930s by Madeleine Colani. Long shrouded in mystery, the
jars have inspired theories ranging from food storage to rice wine brewing by
giants. Modern research, enabled by the clearance of unexploded ordnance from
the Vietnam War era, is revealing their true role in complex mortuary
traditions, though questions about the jar-makers’ settlements and social
structures remain.