Plain of Jars; Megaliths; Laos; UNESCO World Heritage; Conservation
Authors:
Dougald O’Reilly (The Australian National University) and Louise Shewan (University of Melbourne)
Fig.1 (left): Jar found at Site 1, located on a knoll in Group 1 at Site 1. The model was created as a digital record to allow monitoring of the jar and detect damage or changes that may occur in the future, a tool which could aid conservation efforts.
The 3D model illustrated here (Fig. 1) represents one of the largest jars found at Site 1 in Xiengkhouang Province, Laos. The jar is estimated to weigh in excess of 30 tonnes and was likely sourced from a quarry some 8km away, as determined through geochronological analyses conducted by the Plain of Jars Archaeological Research Project (Shewan et al. 2021). The site comprises over 300 similar, large megalithic jars.
More than 120 megalithic jars sites are known from north-central Laos. The majority of the documented sites are located in Xieng Khouang province, spread across an area of around 7,000km2, though a small number of sites are found in adjoining provinces. While named as ‘the Plain of Jars’, based on the three most accessible sites, most jar sites are found in mountainous areas (Shewan and O’Reilly 2019; Skopal et al. 2020). Each site contains between one and several hundred jars. Other site types include quarry sites or ‘transport’ sites, where partially completed jars have apparently been abandoned. Missing from the archaeological record is any evidence of habitation.
The jar sites of Laos were first reported in European accounts in the late 19th century. The first archaeological investigation of the megalithic jar sites was conducted by Madeleine Colani (1866-1943) from the EFEO (Shewan and O’Reilly 2019). She commenced investigations at the age of 65, focussing mostly on Ban Ang (now known as Site 1), though she also excavated several other sites.
Research and survey undertaken by the authors and their collaborators since 2016, including excavation at three sites (1, 2 and 52), has increased our understanding of the megalithic jar sites of Laos. For example, the excavations at Site 1 revealed extensive mortuary activity around the megalithic jars. This comprised varied methods of disposal of the dead including primary internment, secondary interment of bundles of human bone and disposal of the dead inside oblong ceramic jars. Some of the burials were overlain by pavements of sandstone chips and others marked by limestone slabs. Of note was the relatively young age of many of the individuals at time of death who were interred at Site 1, with more than 60 percent of the mortuary population being less than 15 years of age. Site 2, also located on the Plain, and Site 52, in an upland area, some 25km distant from Site 1, also contained indications of similar mortuary activities such as sandstone pavements and limestone burial markers. Ceramic burial jars were not encountered at Site 2 and Site 52.
Did the divergent mortuary rituals represent different groups using the site at the same time, or the ritual expression of peoples over many centuries? And what type of ritual did the jars themselves denote? While Colani records finding bone in some vessels, our investigations are yet to contemporaneously link the surrounding burials with the jars. While the burials indicate that the jars probably held ritual significance, we cannot confirm the original purpose of the jars. Local folk lore links the jars to various ritual activities including commemorations with their use believed to be as vats for distilling whiskey, while other theories posit them as receptacles for defleshing of bodies prior to secondary reburial.
Did ritual activity vary between sites? As noted above, skeletal material has only been found at Site 1. Whether this is due solely due to taphonomic processes or indicates disparate site activities remains to be determined. Given the presence of other mortuary accoutrements at each of the sites (limestone slabs and sandstone pavements), it is likely that the sites were used for mortuary purposes.
The Plain of Jars Archaeological Research Project research has also provided information on the date of emplacement of the large megalithic jars as well as the dating of the mortuary activity surrounding the jars and an expansion of the known geographic extent of the culture. Samples taken from beneath the stone jars at Site 2 were dated using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) which suggests that the jars were put in place in the late 2nd millennium BC while dating of skeletal material at Site 1 is mostly dated between the 8-13th CE indicating the enduring ritual significance of the site (Shewan et al. 2021).
A wide-ranging survey across Xiengkhouang Province and part of Luang Prabang was led by doctoral candidate Nicholas Skopal and Department of Heritage officer, Soliya Bounxayhip as part of the research (Skopal et al. 2020). These efforts have led to the confirmation of many known, un-georeferenced jar sites, and the discovery of several new sites. From a starting point of fifty-eight sites documented by 2007, the recent research has now pushed the known number of sites to 129 sites. There are likely to be many more, concealed by dense forest cover. A comparative analysis of the morphology and location of jars at Sites 1, 2, 3 and 52 was undertaken by another doctoral candidate, Andrew Ball.
While much has been learned about the jar sites of Laos and many more sites have been documented, there remains many unanswered questions. We know little about the people who carved the megalithic jars; who they were, where they lived, or how they transported the megaliths. What was the original purpose of the jars and why they were placed at these locations? With our ongoing research, we hope to solve some of these mysteries.
The data collected during the research from 2016 to 2020 has had major outcomes outside academia. In 2019, 11 of the Lao megalithic sites were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage. In addition, site information has been compiled and made accessible to the public on an on-line database with analytic and geographic functionality. For the sites that have been documented, each jar is individually described and geolocated and photographs and in some cases 3D models are available for viewing. This tool will be used by the Lao authorities in future management of these sites.
Project funded through “Unravelling the Mystery of the Plain of Jars, Laos” – Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP0101164
Further reading:
O’Reilly, D., Shewan, L., Domett, K., Halcrow, S., and Luangkoth, T. 2019. Excavating among the megaliths: recent research at ‘Plain of Jars’ Site 1, Xieng Khouang, Laos. Antiquity 93(370): 970-989. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.102.
O’Reilly, D., Shewan, L., Khamphouvong, M., and Butphachit, A. 2019. Research at megalithic jar site 52 and the discovery of new jar sites in Xieng Khouang Province, Laos. Asian Archaeology 3: 21-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-019-00023-0.
Shewan, L. O’Reilly, D., Armstrong, R. Toms, P., Webb, J., Beavan, N., Luangkhoth, T., Wood, J., Halcrow, S., Domett, K., Van Den Bergh, J., and Chang, N. 2021. Dating the Megalithic Culture of Laos: Radiocarbon, Optically Stimulated Luminescence and U/Pb Zircon Results. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0247167. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247167.
Shewan, L. and O’Reilly, D. 2019. Madeleine Colani’s Megaliths of Upper Laos. Barcaray: International Publishing.
Skopal, N., Bounxaythip, S., Shewan, L., O’Reilly, D., Luangkhoth, T. and Van Den Bergh, J. 2020. Jars of the jungle: A report on newly discovered and documented megalithic jar sites in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Asian Archaeology 3: 9-19.