The Plain of Jars and Megalithic Origins

Record summary

The Plain of Jars consists of extensive stone jar fields associated with Iron Age mortuary practices in Laos. War, unexploded ordnance, and limited access constrained archaeological work during the 1970s and 1980s, while older colonial and popular accounts encouraged speculation about giants, ancient wine storage, or vanished civilizations. Archaeologists generally investigate burial, secondary mortuary treatment, quarrying, transport, and regional chronology. The lead matters for comparing megalithic explanations across cultures, but the function, makers, and sequence of many jar groups remain incompletely documented.