MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES OF LAOS

Posted September 25, 2016

Sculpted from an assortment of rock types such as sandstone, granite, limestone, conglomerate and breccia, the exact purpose of these vessels still remains unknown. The fact that many of these boulders were quarried and then transported to their final resting place indicates the important role that they played in society. The question of how these jars (some estimated to weigh up to 1000kg) were moved also remains a mystery.

Interest in these megalithic jars rose after a French archaeologist named Madeleine Colani led an excavation to one of the numerous jar sites. Remains of burnt human bones, teeth, glass, iron tools and carnelian beads offered the explanation that these giant stone jars were in fact urns that were used for burial practices. When excavating the land surrounding each jar, human remains were found in pits buried under stones. It is thought that the jars were used to contain the remains of nobility, whilst the poorer classes were simply buried around these vessels – their proximity to the jars possibly indicating their social standing.

Colani also excavated a cave containing these urns and found that the walls had been heavily blackened by smoke. Colani also noted that the holes in the ceiling of the cave were man-made in order to create chimneys. This discovery greatly strengthened Colani’s burial rites hypothesis.

Although new research has recently begun, many of the jar sites are still not accessible due to unexploded war materials that are scattered throughout the countryside. Between 1964 and 1973, Laos was bombed every 8 minutes for 24 hours a day with the area belonging to the Plain of Jars as one of the worst affected. The pock marked landscape and craters left from explosions are visible throughout the area and many jars have been damaged.

Whilst many of the areas have now been cleared, something that remains striking to any visitor here is how the recent history of the Laos conflict is now so closely intertwined with the mystery of these megalithic structures.