passions

2016年5月28日VOA慢速英语[科学报道]亚洲巨石阵--老挝石罐平原
A new group of human remains has been uncovered on thePlain of Jars in Laos. They are believed to date back to the IronAge, some 2,500 years ago.

The Plain of Jars is in the central Lao province of XiengKhouang. The area covers hundreds of kilometers in which canbe found thousands of ancient stone jars. They are groupedtogether at about 100 sites.

The Plain of Jars has been a puzzle for archaeologists—scientists who study prehistoric people andtheir culture.

A joint research team from Australia and Laos found the remains.

Dougald O’Reilly teaches archaeology at Australian National University. He led the field work inLaos.

“This is one of the great enigmas of the Jars’ sites,” he said. “These massive stone jars – some ofthem weighing up to 10 metric tons, that have been dragged eight to 10 kilometers from aquarry site and set up in groups.”

Little is known about the people who made the jars. What did the jars hold? How and why didpeople place them where they did?

O’Reilly said a central question that needs to be answered is who created the stone jars. There areno known sites offering answers to the ethnicity and identity of the people who made them.

The latest field work uncovered an ancient burial ground in an area known as Site 1, in XiengKhouang Province. It has more than 300 stone jars, stone discs and markers.

The scientists uncovered different burial methods. They include burial of whole bodies, theburying of bones grouped together, and bones placed inside ceramic vessels and then buried.

Louise Shewan of Monash University in Australia led one of the teams involved in the field work.Archaeologist Thonglith Luangkhoth, of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism,also led a research team.

Thonglith told Lao media the newly uncovered remains were found about eight kilometers fromthe center of Phonsavanh district.

“This discovery marks a significant milestone since archaeological excavations began in the area inthe 1930s in collaboration with a French archaeologist,” he said.

Dougald O’Reilly said the researchers hope to get really good information from the find.

“With our research, because we’ve been able to uncover a fair amount of human bone – we’vegot seven burials and four probable burials with ceramic jars – so a total of 11 mortuarycontexts.”

He said they are excited to have the opportunity to work at one of South East Asia’s moreimportant—and probably least understood archaeological sites.

Scientists will do isotopic and chemical tests on the remains. They may provide information on theethnicity of the people connected to the sites.

O’Reilly said it is possible that the Lao sites may be linked to similar jar sites in India.

The Australian Research Council is paying for the project. It will continue over five years with fieldwork in Laos and some in northeastern India as well.

The effort may soon provide answers to one of Southeast Asia’s greatest cultural mysteries.

I’m Anne Ball.