Discovery
Ancient burials uncovered:
Archaeologists have uncovered ancient human remains and various burial practices at the mysterious Plain of Jars in Laos, Australian researchers said Monday, as scientists attempt to unravel the puzzle of the stone vessels.
The Plain of Jars in Laos’ central Xieng Khouang province is scattered with thousands of stone jars and scientists have long been perplexed by their original use.
“This will be the first major effort since the 1930s to attempt to understand the purpose of the jars and who created them,” Dougald O’Reilly from the Australian National University’s school of archaeology said in a statement.
He said excavations uncovered three types of burials at the site. In one practice, bones were buried in pits with a large limestone block placed over them, while other bones were found buried in ceramic vessels, separate from the jars.
The researchers also found for the first time an instance of a body being placed in a grave.
O’Reilly said while the jars were empty now, it is possible they were once used to hold bodies until the flesh had completely decomposed so the bones could then be buried.
“We don’t have any evidence for cremation which is something that has been suggested in the past,” said O’Reilly, adding that it was also unclear where those buried had lived.
Despite the finds, he said the original purpose of the jars remains unknown.
“The stone jars remain a mystery as to what they were used for,” O’Reilly told AFP.
Only a few simple objects, such as a handful of glass beads, have been found with the human remains at the burial sites, which are thought to date from about 500 or 600 BC to 550 AD. (AFP) Sat tech plays crucial role: Satellite technology plays a crucial role in measuring greenhouse gas emissions globally, the heads of several space agencies agreed Sunday as they vowed to work together to develop a coordinated monitoring system.
The pledge comes after a landmark climate accord in Paris last year at which world leaders agreed to cap global warming by “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels.
Satellites will play a “major role” in ensuring that ambitious target is met by measuring harmful emissions that contribute to the planet’s warming, said
Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of France’s National Space Studies Centre (CNES), at the meeting in the India capital.
“The idea is to bring together all these ideas about satellite projects from different agencies” to measure carbon and methane emissions in order to eventually achieve “global coordination”, he told AFP.
Some countries already have satellites measuring emissions, but efforts have not been linked between countries, and as such there is no comprehensive measurement system in place.
Japan’s GoSat and the US OCO-2 satellites are already at work measuring carbon emissions.
China is developing its own TanSat and France is working on the MicroCarb satellite to survey Co2 emissions.
Meanwhile France and Germany are working together to develop a methane monitoring satellite that they have dubbed Merlin.
Le Gall said heads of space agencies around the world, including from China, France, India, Japan and the United States, agreed to work together to “achieve maximum cross-collaboration of tools and cross-verification steps” to coordinate and fact-check measurements.