Ancient Stone Jar in Laos May Help Settle Mystery

Archaeologists working in the famed Plain of Jars in Laos appear to have resolved a mystery regarding the purpose of the sandstone vessels. A newly excavated "jar" held the remains of at least 37 people, and the bones were placed inside over a span of roughly 270 years starting in the year 890, per Phys.org. The discovery backs a long-held theory that the entire plain, located near the town of Phonsavan, "was a vast ancient burial complex," reports Science News. The plateau is dotted with more than 2,000 stone jars, but researchers had never found intact human remains inside one until now, per Live Science.

The evidence also points to "secondary" burials. The idea is that bodies decomposed elsewhere—perhaps in smaller stone jars—before selected bones were moved into large jars like the one newly uncovered. "Maybe they used those [smaller] stone jars to 'distill' the bodies—so when someone died, they might have put the body in there so all the flesh came off," says archaeologist Nicholas Skopal of the Australian National University. "Then they took the bones and they put them in this big jar ... so it's almost like a crypt." Ancient DNA work is planned to determine whether the occupants were related.