Overview
- The peer‑reviewed study published Wednesday in the journal Antiquity reports that excavations of Jar 1 at Site 75 recovered disarticulated bones and teeth from at least 37 people deposited over roughly 270 years.
- Radiocarbon dates place repeated depositions between about 890 and 1160 CE, shifting use of this jar toward the medieval period rather than the earlier Iron Age timeframe once assumed.
- Researchers interpret the pattern as staged or secondary interment, meaning bodies were left to decompose elsewhere before selected bones were moved into the large communal jar for ancestral or ritual purposes.
- The jar held grave goods including 20 glass beads, pottery, a bell, and an iron knife, and compositional analysis links some beads to South India and Mesopotamia, indicating long‑distance connections or exchange.
- The team plans full bioanthropological study and ancient DNA analysis to test biological relatedness, identify lifeways, and assess whether this ossuary practice applies across other jar sites on the Plain of Jars.