Tale Of Mystic Stone Jars

There are a lot of secrets and mysteries that we are still unaware of from our past. There are tales, legends, and artifacts; there are objects from the days of yore that we still can’t explain. One such discovery from the land of Assam has brought us to a question that we might never be able to answer- what are these jars, and how were they used? A group of researchers unearthed some sixty-five giant stone jars, and they couldn’t decipher the usage of these jars.

When the stone jars of Assam were unearthed; Image Source: WordPress- Dr. Lamba’s Awakening Call

<p>Finds from the past always bring us to some stories that are often unbelievable and hard to prove. When the archaeologists of southeast Asia went on a quest to find the hidden secrets of India, they stumbled upon some artifacts that left them confused and clueless.</p><p><br></p><p>The excavation sites at Assam were filled with humongous stone jars with an unknown story hidden behind their construction. These artifacts couldn’t be identified as something in daily use by the communities who left them behind. Still, the artisans who constructed these lived between the late 2nd millennium BCE and the early 13th century.</p><p><br></p><p>When these mysterious jars surfaced, they were linked to faraway lands like Laos and Indonesia. While no one knows the purpose behind these jars, some people believe that dead bodies were kept inside these containers in Laos.</p><p><br></p><p>To support this claim, archaeologists have also found the skeletal remains of dead people. In Indonesia, the excavation of urn burials that looked similar to the stone jars of Assam further strengthened the claims of the archaeologists.</p><p><br></p><p>When historians found a lot of similarities between the artifacts of India and other faraway lands of Laos and Indonesia, it became evident that these countries had some cross-cultural influence on each other due to the connection between them through trade or any other form. With these concepts in mind, when archaeologists began exploring the stone jars of Assam, they found some more interesting backstories.</p><p><br></p><p>The three archaeologists who delved deep into these stone jars to discover their secrets released a research paper of their own in a journal named Asian Archaeology. This contained not only their recent search at Assam’s Dima Hasao Province in 2020 but also the previous expeditions undertaken by others to explore the mystery of these jars.</p><p><br></p><p>Most of the sites where these stone jars were found were primarily rocky terrains and hilly areas. The location of these jars might tell us something about the pots and their uses. More than a hundred jars lie carelessly at various sites, waiting for people to come and unearth them.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

When the mysterious stone jars had a history of its own; Image Source: BBC

<p>The jars were mostly made from Berail sandstone, which was available locally. The artisans who constructed the jars made them as big as possible with bulgy shapes and elongated bottoms. Some of these have also been engraved with images of bulls and people.</p><p><br></p><p>When James Phillip Mills and John Henry Hutton conducted their first research on these humongous jars, they claimed that these jars might have burial or mortuary functions. But this was not just a claim. They found something that would support their claims- they found bone pieces in one of the jars and evidence of an ancestral bone deposit, which was strictly practiced during those days by extant tribes.</p><p><br></p><p>Tilok Thakuria, a North Eastern Hill University professor, wrote the following in his research paper: “Zeme Naga, a northeastern tribe, believed that the Seimi, a now-lost culture, created the jars to house their deceased as well as burial gifts, hiding them with lids. Ancestors of the Zeme would explore the jars for burial items like beads and iron artifacts.”</p><p><br></p><p>While excavating specific sites with his team, Thakuria came across two areas in Assam where they found human footprints on these jars. Since they were not present in other places, they wondered if these engravings were specially created by the artisans who made these jars. To further confirm this, when they asked the local people, they learned that the Zeme Naga tribe made these prints. They used to worship the footprints of Rani Gaidinliu, a spiritual leader from the Naga clan who led the revolt against the British.</p><p><br></p><p>Despite the most extraordinary efforts of archaeologists, many mysteries surrounding the Assam jars remain unresolved. We still know very little about the ancient communities that created and utilized these objects.</p>