The remains of at least 37 people who died between the 9th and 13th centuries were found inside a massive stone vessel in northeastern Laos, and the discovery could finally resolve one of Southeast Asia's most enduring archaeological puzzles. According to a new study published in the journal Antiquity, this remarkable find strongly suggests that the thousands of stone "jars" scattered throughout northern Laos served a similar purpose, reinforcing the long-held theory that the mysterious Plain of Jars around the remote Lao town of Phonsavan was a vast ancient burial complex.
The newfound jar is located in a forest about 70 kilometers (43 miles) northeast of Phonsavan, on the Xieng Khouang Plateau — a region dotted with thousands of these enigmatic stone vessels. While the most well-studied concentration is around Phonsavan itself, several jars have been found much farther afield, leading researchers to consider the entire plateau as part of the Plain of Jars. "The big jar we've found is unique, and I've seen a lot of jars," says archaeologist Nicholas Skopal of the Australian National University in Canberra, as reported by Science News.
Uncovering the Secrets of the Giant Jars
Before this recent discovery, only a handful of the jars had been found to contain bones or ash, and it seemed unlikely that so many massive stone vessels would have been carved solely for burial ceremonies. The new find finally confirms that the jars were part of ancient burial rituals, though their precise use may have varied across different locations. The disarticulation of many of the skeletal remains inside the newfound jar strongly suggests they were interred there in a "secondary burial" — placed inside after the bodies had already partially decomposed elsewhere.
- The Plain of Jars: A Megalithic Archaeological Mystery in Laos
- 137 More Giant Artifacts Found in Deep Forest Around Plain of Jars
This decomposition may have occurred in smaller jars found a short distance away from the large vessel. "Maybe they used those stone jars to 'distill' the bodies — so when someone died, they might have put the body in there so all the flesh came off," Skopal suggests. "Then they took the bones and they put them in this big jar… so it's almost like a crypt." The find sheds new light on the funerary practices of the people who inhabited this remote highland plateau more than a thousand years ago.
View of the site 1 of the plain of jars, Phonsavan, Laos (Allazad / [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))]
A Century of Archaeological Investigation
The stone jars near Phonsavan were first investigated in the 1930s by the French archaeologist Madeleine Colani, who rejected the popular assumption that the jars were used for storing food and water, instead arguing for a funerary role. Most of the jars stand a little more than a meter high, though some reach up to three meters tall and weigh several tons. A few were fitted with stone lids, and some lie on their sides. A local legend, meanwhile, claims that giants used the jars to brew rice wine — a colorful tradition that has endured alongside the scholarly debate.
- Giant Jars, Ancient Bells, and Buried Bones: New Clues Emerge at Laos' Plain of Jars
- Researchers Renew Efforts to Solve the Puzzling Plain of Jars Site
The remote region was largely overlooked after Colani's survey, and modern expeditions were long hampered by the large number of unexploded cluster bombs and other munitions left over from the Vietnam War era. Lao authorities have since cleared many of those munitions, allowing for renewed archaeological studies to take place. Since the 2000s, researchers have found burial pits filled with ancient human remains beside the jars, possibly placed there to decompose before being reinterred. Archaeologist Julie Van Den Bergh, one of the first researchers to visit the site after parts of it were cleared in 2004, says the new find "offers valuable evidence that helps contextualize earlier findings, including Colani's work from the 1930s," and "supports the interpretation of the jars as burial or funerary related."
Dating the Enigmatic Burials
Colani had estimated that the oldest jars could date back as far as the 5th century BC. However, more recent radiocarbon dating of the remains found in the newly discovered jar indicates they were used in burials from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. Some of the jars contained ashes and burned bone fragments from cremations — a tradition associated with Buddhism, suggesting the jars may have been reused for burials after the religion spread into the region. The mix of burial types within a single site points to a long and evolving funerary tradition.
A large stone jar with a person for scale at the Plain of Jars, Phonsavan, Laos (Allazad / CC BY-SA 4.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laos_phonsavan_plain_of_jars_3.jpg
Miriam Stark, an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who was not involved in the study, says she had long hoped such a jar would be found. "This is a collective mortuary assemblage [and] I find that very interesting," says Stark. She notes, however, that no sign has yet been found of the settlements of the people who used the jars. "I do wonder, where did these people live?" That question, alongside others about the social organization and identity of the jar-makers, may drive the next phase of research at one of Southeast Asia's most captivating ancient sites. The Plain of Jars was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, and research there continues to yield new surprises.
Top image: Close-up view of stone jars at the Plain of Jars, Phonsavan, Laos (Allazad / CC BY-SA 4.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laos_phonsavan_plain_of_jars_2.jpg
By Gary Manners
References
Metcalfe, T. 2026. A 'jar' jammed with human bones may solve Laos' 'Plain of Jars' mystery. Science News. Available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/jar-human-bones-solve-laos-mystery
Skopal, N. et al. 2026. The death jar: a new mortuary tradition at the Plain of Jars, Lao PDR. Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10352
Wikipedia. 2026. Plain of Jars. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars
