A group of researchers has found 65 mysterious giant sandstone jars across four new sites in Assam that may have been used for ancient human burial practices
Researchers have found 65 stone jars at four new sites in Assam. Photo: Tilok Thakuria
A group of researchers has found 65 mysterious giant sandstone jars across four new sites in Assam that may have been used for ancient human burial practices.
The discoveries of the joint research project, which involved archaeologists from North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Meghalaya, Gauhati University and the Australian National University (ANU), was published in the journal Asian Archaeology in late March.
The paper, ‘An archaeological survey of the Assam stone jar sites’, has been authored by Tilok Thakuria of NEHU, along with Uttam Bathari of Gauhati University and Nicholas Skopal of the ANU.
What was started as a routine survey to explore three known sites expanded to include a 300-square-kilometer area with the help of local communities that led to the discovery of the jars.
The 65 newly discovered sandstone jars vary in shape and decoration, with some tall and cylindrical, and others partly or fully buried in the ground, ANU said in a press release.
It added that similar jars, some of which span up to three metres high and two metres wide, have previously been uncovered in Laos and Indonesia.
Let’s find out more about these mysterious stone jars and their connection with Laos and Indonesia:
What is the history of these jars in India?
This is not the first time that sandstone jars have been found in northeast India. As per a report by Indian Express, the jars were first sighted in 1929 by British civil servants James Philip Mills and John Henry Hutton.
The jars’ presence was recorded in six sites in Dima Hasao. These discoveries were followed up in 2014 by researchers from the NEHU and Nagaland University.
The researchers documented three distinct jar shapes – bulbous top with conical end; biconcial; cylindrical.
As per the report, they found as many as 546 jars at the Nuchubunglo site.
“This is arguably the largest such site in the world,” said Thakuria.
Most of the jars were found in poor condition, mostly due to forest growth, weather conditions, road cutting projects and burning owing to shifting cultivation.
What is the significance of this discovery?
Though the archaeologists are yet to scientifically date the jars, they note that similar jars unearthed in the region are believed to date back to 401 BC or earlier.
As per a BBC report, some 10 sites containing more than 700 jars have been uncovered in Assam so far.
Dr Skopal of ANU said that even though the Naga people tell the stories of finding the jars filled with cremated remains, beads and other artefacts, it is yet not known who made the jars and where they lived.
The researchers have also found similarities with the stone jars found in Laos and Indonesia.
“There are typological and morphological similarities between the jars found at all three sites,” Bathari of Gauhati University said.
The jars in Laos, which were uncovered in 2016, are believed to have been placed in Xieng Khouang province at least 2,000 years ago.
“The size and structure of the jars found in Assam and Laos are very similar. There’s some variation in shape and size though. The ones in Assam are more bulbous, whereas the ones in Laos are more cylindrical,” Skopal said, as per the BBC report.
There is no reported parallel anywhere else in India.
“…this points to the fact that once upon a time a group of people having similar kind of cultural practice occupied the same geography between Laos and Northeast India,” Thakuria added.
Connection with funeral practices
The paper states that researchers in Laos found “strong association” between the stone jars and funeral practices of the regions. Human skeletal remains were found inside and also buried around the jars.
In Indonesia, the function of the jars remains unconfirmed, although some scholars suggest a similar mortuary role.
As per the Indian Express report, Mills and Hutton, too, had suggested that the jars were associated with mortuary rituals.
The two researchers referred to the “practices of ancestral bone repository of tribes like Mikir, Sakchips, Hangkals, Kuki, Khasi and Synteng and evidence of cremated bone fragments placed in one of the jars”, stated the paper.
In the 1930s, anthropologist Ursula Graham Bower described these as “funerary urns”.
With inputs from agencies
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