A giant stone jar in Laos holding 37 skeletons may finally solve a century-old mystery

A giant stone jar at Site 75 in Xieng Khouang province, Laos, was found containing the remains of at least 37 individuals, providing the strongest evidence yet that the jars served as communal burial sites.

The excavation by a team led by Nicholas Skopal of James Cook University uncovered packed bones, an iron knife, a copper bell, broken pottery, and glass beads inside the nearly 7-foot-wide jar.

The remains span from children as young as 18 months to adults, suggesting entire communities were interred in a single jar, with skulls deliberately placed around the edges and long bones bundled nearby.

More than 120 jar sites have been documented across the Laotian plateau since French archaeologist Madeleine Colani first surveyed the area in the 1930s.