Page 48 - Canadian Geographic

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SHAFTS OF SUNLIGHT struggle to pen-
etrate mist hanging over mixed forest on
a mountaintop in the northern reaches of
the Annamite range in Laos. It’s a cold day
in February 2017 and a metal pot of coffee
simmers on a fire. Nearby, Canadian
archeologist Dougald O’Reilly, in a canvas
Australian stockman hat and army pants,
black puffer jacket and Grateful Dead
T-shirt, is crouched in a precisely cut four-
by-four-metre trench. At its edge is an oval
stone disk roughly one metre across. It’s
lying flat near a huge stone “jar.”
This is Site 52 of the Plain of Jars, so
named for the plateau where the best-
known group of jars, Site 1, is situated,
near the city of Phonsavan. From
Phonsavan, Site 52 is an hour’s drive on a
highway, then another 45 minutes up a
precipitous dirt track. Scattered all around
this forest floor are some 400 stone ves-
sels, one to three metres tall, some lying
on their sides. A number of the jars are
broken, with trees growing through them;
a few disks, some of them likely lids, can
be seen too. The jars are empty except for
stagnant rainwater and spiders. He’s well positioned to do just that. Site 1 of the Plain of Jars (above and
O’Reilly, 51, is an assistant professor “Dougald O’Reilly is one of the main previous pages) is the best known
at Canberra’s Australian National players in advancing our understanding grouping of the megaliths that archeologist
University and chief investigator on this of Southeast Asian prehistory,” says Dougald O’Reilly (below) is investigating.
three-week field project that’s part of a Charles Higham, an archeologist at the
five-year effort — the first of its scale in University of Otago in Dunedin, New world’s poorest countries, since it boosts
some 80 years — to solve the mystery of Zealand. “He’s been a success story from tourism and can help preserve the sites.
the jars. “The two most common ques- the word go.” Higham, who himself has If successful, the government will
tions I get are, ‘What were the jars for long been considered the “rock star” of have O’Reilly and his project partner,
and how old are they?’” says the dark- archeology in this part of the world, cred- archeologist Louise Shewan of the
haired, blue-eyed Oakville, Ont., native. its his former student with making an University of Melbourne, to thank: the
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.” exceptional contribution in Cambodia, pair approached Laos’s heritage depart-
both in excavating key sites and in his ment back in 2012 to propose this
initiatives to protect cultural heritage. research. “The fact that too little was
(See sidebar, “Heritage Watch: Preserving known about the jars had been one of the
Cambodia’s Past.”) hurdles they’d been facing in gaining
As for Laos, says Higham, “Dougald World Heritage status,” says O’Reilly.
has pioneered fieldwork there by opening The archeologists got their permission
this major Plain of Jars project.” One of and were awarded a grant from the
the team’s main goals is to map the sites, Australian Research Council, and began
and the jars themselves, for the first time work on Site 1 in 2016.
with remote sensing and GIS. O’Reilly
says this is crucial for the Laos govern- LITTLE IS KNOWN about the megaliths,
ment’s bid, now underway, for UNESCO thought to have been made a couple of
World Heritage status for the jar sites. thousand years ago. There are some 80
Such status would benefit Laos, one of the jar sites scattered around northeast Laos,

48 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2018