Perched in some cases on precarious cliff ledges, centuries-old log coffins—such as this one, pictured alongside researcher Nancy Beavan—and “body jars” are the only known traces of an unknown Cambodian tribe. Now new dating studies are beginning to assure the unnamed culture a place in history.
Ten such burial spots have been found in the Cardamom Mountainssince 2003, and none are lower than about 50 stories—the intention apparently being that “anyone trying to disturb the burials would break their neck,” said Beavan, who led the new study.
Skulls and other human bones poke from large ceramic jars at Khnorng Sroal, one of the newly dated mountainside burials in southwestern Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains.
Hewn from tree trunks some 700 years ago, several log coffins are pictured lined up like ramshackle piano keys beneath a rock overhang at the Phnom Pel burial site in Cambodia in 2010.
Human bones lie inside a log coffin at Phnom Pel. Read more.
A grave-robbing group of ancient Egypt aficionados have been charged with smuggling 2000-year-old sarcophagus coffins - minus the mummies - into the U.S., authorities said Thursday.
Mousa “Morris” Khouli, the owner of Windsor Antiquities on E. 56th St., tried to dupe Customs officials by mislabeling the shipments of coffins and other artifacts as “antiques” and “wood panels,” according to an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Also charged are Salem Alshdaifat, who operated Holyland Numismatics in Michigan, and collector Joseph Lewis, of Virginia. Ayman Ramadan, an antiquity dealers from Dubai, UAE, is a fugitive. Read more.
