Archaeologists excavating an unusual "death jar" in Laos have discovered that it was used to collect the partly decomposed remains of multiple generations of people around 1,200 years ago. And rather than being the deceased's final burial spot, the jar may represent one step in a complex mortuary process.
The large death jar, called Jar 1, is also the first of its kind on record to contain undisturbed human remains, the excavation team reported in a new study. Thousands of centuries-old death jars have been found in Southeast Asia over the decades, and while researchers suspected that the vessels may have been used for burials, there was no solid evidence for that until now.
