Archaeologists Uncover 37 Sets of Human Remains in Laos Jar, Recasting Plain of Jars as Burial Site
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 1
Archaeologists Uncover 37 Sets of Human Remains in Laos Jar, Recasting Plain of Jars as Burial Site
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 1
At least 37 people’s disarticulated remains were found inside “Jar 1” on Laos’s Xieng Khouang Plateau, identifying the stone vessel as a multigenerational crypt rather than a container.
The find came after Nicholas Skopal’s team excavated sediment from the squat, roughly 4-foot-tall and 8-foot-wide vessel during fieldwork in winter 2022.
The study, published in Antiquity, provides some of the clearest evidence yet that the Plain of Jars’ thousands of massive stone urns were used in funerary rites.
That evidence challenges long-running local folklore that ancient giants carved the megaliths to brew rice wine and sharpens archaeologists’ picture of early Southeast Asian mortuary practices.
How did an ancient people move thousands of multi-ton stone urns across rugged mountains with no machines?
How did a lost Laotian culture trade with India and the Middle East over 1,000 years ago?
The jars' purpose is solved, but who were the people who created them and why did they vanish?
Unveiling the Secrets of the Plain of Jars: New Discoveries at Site 75 Transform Understanding of Ancient Laotian Culture and Global Connections
Overview
The recent discoveries at Site 75, announced in late 2025 and early 2026, mark a turning point in understanding the ancient Plain of Jars culture. Building on over a century of international interest, ongoing research at this site is revealing not only the practical uses of the massive stone jars but also offering new insights into the daily lives, spiritual beliefs, and social connections of the people who created them. These findings are significant because they help reconstruct a fuller picture of this prehistoric civilization and promise to deepen our understanding of how these communities lived and honored their dead.