Megalithic jars were found in 15 sites the Southeast Asian nation of Laos.
Researchers have uncovered 15 sites in the Southeast Asian country of Laos containing more than a hundred huge stone jars from around 1,000 years ago. The jars are thought to have once been used to store the dead.
"These new sites have really only been visited by the occasional tiger hunter. Now we've rediscovered them, we're hoping to build a clear picture about this culture and how it disposed of its dead," Nicholas Skopal, one of the ANU researchers, said in a statement. Alongside the jars, the archaeologists also found beautifully carved discs, which may have acted as some kind of burial marker. Intriguingly, the side of the discs containing the elaborate carvings were all found facing downward. Among the carvings, the team identified concentric circles, human figures, creatures and pommels.
"Curiously we also found many miniature jars, which look just like the giant jars themselves but made of clay, so we'd love to know why these people represented the same jars in which they placed their dead, in miniature to be buried with their dead," O'Reilly said.
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