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The jars, which can weigh up to six tons and are carved from giant pieces of imported sedimentary rock, are believed to have been used 1500 to 2000 years ago, by an ancient South Asian people whose culture is now totally unknown, for purposes largely still unknown. The jars lay in at least clusters the largest of which, known as Site 1, contains over 250 jars of varying size.
Initially discovered by a French archaeologist, Madeleine Colani of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient in the 1930s, the jars now lie amidst thousands of bombs left behind by America's Secret War in Laos in the 1960s. The large quantity of UXO in the area means that only Sites 1, 2 and 3 are open to visitors - the others are considered too dangerous.
The Laotian caretakers of the Plain of Jars are currently applying for status as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Clearing of the UXO hazard will be necessary before many of the sites can be studied.
Though the beads, bronzes and other artifacts that Colani discovered, which led her to believe that the jars were funerary urns, have all since been dispersed, her archaeological reports remain. More jar fields have been found southward all the way to Northern India. The jars appear to be laid in a linear path that was most likely a trade route.
Madeleine Colani speculated that the plains of jars connected a caravan route from northern India, for which there is much evidence. However, despite the common trend to name all ancient archaeological sites "funerary" without evidence or reason, and because little to no human remains were found in these jars, there is a new theory on the purpose and origin of these jars. Local natives believe the jars were molded, by using natural materials such as clay, sand, sugar, and animal products in a type of stone mix. Actually the local in question stated "buffalo hide". This is more feasible than thinking ten foot high stone jars were turned on lathes and hollowed out of solid imported stone not natural to the area. Madeleine Colani DID find a natural double chimney-ed cave at the site of the largest jar field, with evidence of smoke accumulation by the chimneys, similar to a primitive kiln. She assumed in her funerary train of thought that she had found a crematory. This leads some to believe her cave was actually a kiln, and that the huge jars were moulded as the locals believe, and not of imported stone which is hard to justify the validity of. The cave was damaged by an American bomb during the war, when it was used as a stronghold by the Pathet Lao - the surrounding area still has trench systems and bomb craters visible.
A more reasonable explanation for the jar's use would be collecting monsoon rainwater for the caravan travellers along their journey in a time where rain may have been only seasonal and water not readily available on the easiest foot travelled path. Rainwater could then be boiled even if stagnant, to become potable again, which has been known in Asia for eons. Beads could have been placed inside jars as prayers for rain, or by the trade caravans constantly camping around these jars and simply losing items.
Both Colani and modern archaologists have concluded most likely that the jars were funerary for cremating human remains. However, modern archeology has ignored the lack of human remains in the jars, and the practicality of anyone having carved 10 foot tall solid stone jars for burial purposes, and jumped to the impractical conclusion of funerarity for an ancient find. The jars appear to have had no lids, they were meant to be open, i.e. more likely rainwater collectors, and even had smaller openings to slow evaporation. We must remember in archaeology, that the peoples of the past did more than die -- they had lives and were more intelligent than we sometimes give them credit for. There is evidence to support the validity of the oral tradition in Laos, that sugar, animal product, clay and sand were the recipe for this "stone" material moulded and fired into jars. The ancient celts have a similar legend known in the UK area, that the mortar for the ancient stone castles substituted beer and blood for water in the mix. Those castles still standing for 1000s of years give credit to the local explanation of how the Laotian Plain of Jars was made.
Southeast Asia