March 12, 2026 • 11 mins
Vast expanses of land seem like difficult places to find curiosities, but today's trip through the Cabinet will make two of them very clear.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
The road to the central highland plateau of Siang Kwang
in northern Laos is a rough one. It climbs and twists,
revealing to the travelers sweeping vistas at every turn, terraced
fields where cattle graze, and dramatic limestone cliffs. The road
itself is frequently broken, with deep ruts and occasional washouts,
slow traffic to a crawl. They're in the remote misty
(00:59):
heighth giants dominate the landscape, massive stone vessels that give
the plateau its name, the plane of jars. These vessels
are not modest, some rising up to three meters in height,
but some weighing up to thirty tons. Their shapes vary
nearly as much as their sizes. Some cylinders, some with
their large stone lids resembling mushrooms. Many are cracked and worn.
(01:23):
Their surfaces, ground down over time by the wind and
the weather. The jars are spread out over a massive territory.
Some stand alone as watchful sentinels, while others are densely
clustered together as strange stone forests. In the late nineteen twenties,
French geologist and archaeologist Madeline Kolani traveled to Laos to
conduct the first comprehensive study of these jars. She spent
(01:47):
months on sites, mapping each jar with meticulous care, sketching configurations,
and conducting excavations. She also spent time listening to the
storytelling of locals, taking into account their understanding of the place.
While earlier scholars assumed the vessels were mere storage for
grain or water, she came to believe that they held
a deeper ritual purpose. The discovery of charred human remains
(02:11):
in nearby caves suggested that the jars played a role
in the funerary rituals rather than the mundane storage of
these peoples. The caves, she suggested, were used to cremate bodies,
which would then be interred in the jars. She used
these discoveries to publish a two volume study of the area,
which laid the foundation for scholarship on the subject. Kolani
(02:33):
continued to conduct field studies of the jars until her
death in nineteen forty three, but it would be many
decades before new researchers brought modern technology to the mystery.
In nineteen ninety four, for example, researchers used modern GPS
enabled mapping of site I, documenting the exact location of
each jar and the surrounding burial pits. This helped establish
(02:56):
a more clear relationship between the two since advances, including
the technique called optically stimulated luminescence or OSL, have further
clarified the chronology of the vessels, showing them to be
relics of the Iron Age, with some of the jars
dating back three thousand years. Carbon dating of the remains, however,
have shown that their period of usage extended to around
(03:19):
seven hundred years ago, suggesting and enduring ritual significance to
the sites leading well into the medieval era. All put together,
it seems that while scholars may disagree on the finer details,
the modern consensus now is that Kolani was correct. Now,
the extensive travel required to witness the plane of jars
makes it an unlikely tourist destination. But there's another reason
(03:41):
that the sites are sparsely visited. A single wrong step
could be fatal. You see, when northern Laos was heavily
bombed during the Vietnam War, tens of millions of unexploded
cluster munitions were left hidden in the soil. It's estimated
that it will take nearly a century to remove all
the unexploded bombs. Today, hey, the Jara Plains is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its archaeological and cultural significance.
(04:06):
Local authorities have created walking paths, signage, and small visitor
centers to educate travelers while also protecting the ancient stones.
Guided tours, as you'd imagine, are very limited, but a
slow stream of international travelers do make their journey each year,
drawn by both the mystery and the majesty of the landscape.
(04:27):
Visiting the Plane of Jars is indeed a journey through
time where the ancient rituals of past civilizations is on
full display. These stone vessels stand as silent witnesses to
centuries of life, death and resilience, a reminder that history
can be both unusual and very curious. Doug was worried,
(05:00):
worried about something most of us probably would never even
think about. He was worried about elk, more specifically, too
many elk, because Yellowstone National Park, home to nearly four
hundred species of animals and spanning three mountain states, was
in danger of ecological collapse. You see, Yellowstone was missing
one very important creature that brought balance to the whole ecosystem,
(05:23):
what is often called a keystone species, the North American
gray wolf, which had been completely absent from the park
for fifty years. But why. The story begins all the
way back in eighteen seventy four, when President Ulyssess Grant
designated Yellowstone as protected land and made it the very
first national park. Grant was moved after seeing photographs taken
(05:45):
by Ferdinand Hayden. One look at the roaming bison, swimming bears,
wide canyons, alpine rivers, and enormous blue sky was enough
to convince him this place was special. But just because
the land was protected didn't mean the wildlife were. In fact,
many visitors came to the park for the purpose of
hunting bison, antelope, and even predator species. Gray Wolves were
(06:08):
especially sought after for their pelts and because they frightened
the tourists, occasionally the wolves even attacked local cattle herds
on nearby farms. All this meant that by nineteen twenty six,
there were no wolves left in Yellowstone, and this was
the problem that had Doug Smith so worried to fully
understand it, though, you have to think about this as
dominoes all lined up in a neat row ready to fall,
(06:31):
with the first hitting the second, and the third and
so on. The absence of wolves in the park was
a problem because without wolves, the elk population had grown
out of control. The plants that they ate, especially aspen
and cottonwood trees, were now in danger of being overgrazed.
And since the elk had no predators to fear, they
also spent longer and longer way out in the open
(06:53):
grazing beside the river bank. And because there were too
many elk, the plants along the river that cleaned the
river died off and the river became cloudy. And because
the river was cloudy, many fish didn't survive well in
that cloudy water, which meant fewer food for bears, otters,
and birds of prey, And with a vegetation gone from
the riverbank beavers also had nothing to build their dams with,
(07:16):
and the creatures dependent on a wetland environment that was
created by those dams had nowhere to go. You can
see how one problem trickled down to all the other systems.
The solution here might seem obvious. It certainly did to
Doug Smith and the conservationists who were working with him.
If wolves were reintroduced into the park, this time with
(07:37):
protections in place to keep them from being hunted, the
rest might fall into place. As it turns out, that
was easier said than done. One big issue, well, that
would be the nearby ranchers. Yellowstone is situated between three states, Idaho, Wyoming,
and Montana, and in all three states there were farmers
and ranchers who felt worried about the plan to reintroduce
(07:58):
the wolves. Make sure the wolves would be in the
park and not on the ranchers land, But what was
to stop them from hunting down helpless livestock on nearby farms.
It wasn't as if the wolves could read or understand
a you are leaving Yellowstone sign. Then even fences weren't
enough to deter them. And this wasn't the first time
that the park's conservation efforts had actually impacted these farmers'
(08:20):
ways of life. Bison ate up all the grass that
the farmers wanted to graze their own cowson, and then
as more and more visitors came to Yellowstone, the National
Park Service needed to expand They paid the farmers well
for their land, but many were sorry to leave their homes. Eventually,
the conservationists and the ranchers settled on a compromise. Wolves
that wandered out of the park and onto private land
(08:42):
were fair game for farmers and ranchers to kill. As
long as wolves stayed in the park, however, they would
be safe and protected by the law. In January of
nineteen ninety five, wildlife officials captured fourteen Canadian wolves in
northern Alberta. These wolves, while not the same species as
the original Yellowstone wolves, were similar enough that they would
(09:03):
take the same role in the ecosystem. The conservationists even
made sure to pull wolves from different packs so that
they'd be able to breed and continue growing the population.
Once they were inside Yellowstone, and for months, the wolves
stayed in small acclamation pens within the park to get
comfortable with their new environment. Doug Smith was among the
researchers stationed to care for and observe the wolves to
(09:26):
see if they be ready for release. In March of
nineteen ninety five, the gates were opened and the fourteen
Canadian wolves stepped hesitantly into the snow to investigate their
new homes. Less than a year later, seventeen more joined
Yellowstone's wolf population. As for the predictions of Doug Smith
and other conservationists, they all came true. Within months of
(09:48):
the wolves being reintroduced, Yellowstone went from an ecosystem teetering
on the edge of collapse to a thriving, flourishing environment,
receiving more than four million visitors every year, most of
them probably I have no idea that the lush forests,
the clean rivers, and the huge range of species that
they see are all thanks to one heroic creature, the
(10:09):
Big Bad Wolf. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour
through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and
written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by
Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people
(10:29):
who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the
same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
(10:50):
Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com,
slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious, m
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
The road to the central highland plateau of Siang Kwang
in northern Laos is a rough one. It climbs and twists,
revealing to the travelers sweeping vistas at every turn, terraced
fields where cattle graze, and dramatic limestone cliffs. The road
itself is frequently broken, with deep ruts and occasional washouts,
slow traffic to a crawl. They're in the remote misty
(00:59):
heighth giants dominate the landscape, massive stone vessels that give
the plateau its name, the plane of jars. These vessels
are not modest, some rising up to three meters in height,
but some weighing up to thirty tons. Their shapes vary
nearly as much as their sizes. Some cylinders, some with
their large stone lids resembling mushrooms. Many are cracked and worn.
(01:23):
Their surfaces, ground down over time by the wind and
the weather. The jars are spread out over a massive territory.
Some stand alone as watchful sentinels, while others are densely
clustered together as strange stone forests. In the late nineteen twenties,
French geologist and archaeologist Madeline Kolani traveled to Laos to
conduct the first comprehensive study of these jars. She spent
(01:47):
months on sites, mapping each jar with meticulous care, sketching configurations,
and conducting excavations. She also spent time listening to the
storytelling of locals, taking into account their understanding of the place.
While earlier scholars assumed the vessels were mere storage for
grain or water, she came to believe that they held
a deeper ritual purpose. The discovery of charred human remains
(02:11):
in nearby caves suggested that the jars played a role
in the funerary rituals rather than the mundane storage of
these peoples. The caves, she suggested, were used to cremate bodies,
which would then be interred in the jars. She used
these discoveries to publish a two volume study of the area,
which laid the foundation for scholarship on the subject. Kolani
(02:33):
continued to conduct field studies of the jars until her
death in nineteen forty three, but it would be many
decades before new researchers brought modern technology to the mystery.
In nineteen ninety four, for example, researchers used modern GPS
enabled mapping of site I, documenting the exact location of
each jar and the surrounding burial pits. This helped establish
(02:56):
a more clear relationship between the two since advances, including
the technique called optically stimulated luminescence or OSL, have further
clarified the chronology of the vessels, showing them to be
relics of the Iron Age, with some of the jars
dating back three thousand years. Carbon dating of the remains, however,
have shown that their period of usage extended to around
(03:19):
seven hundred years ago, suggesting and enduring ritual significance to
the sites leading well into the medieval era. All put together,
it seems that while scholars may disagree on the finer details,
the modern consensus now is that Kolani was correct. Now,
the extensive travel required to witness the plane of jars
makes it an unlikely tourist destination. But there's another reason
(03:41):
that the sites are sparsely visited. A single wrong step
could be fatal. You see, when northern Laos was heavily
bombed during the Vietnam War, tens of millions of unexploded
cluster munitions were left hidden in the soil. It's estimated
that it will take nearly a century to remove all
the unexploded bombs. Today, hey, the Jara Plains is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its archaeological and cultural significance.
(04:06):
Local authorities have created walking paths, signage, and small visitor
centers to educate travelers while also protecting the ancient stones.
Guided tours, as you'd imagine, are very limited, but a
slow stream of international travelers do make their journey each year,
drawn by both the mystery and the majesty of the landscape.
(04:27):
Visiting the Plane of Jars is indeed a journey through
time where the ancient rituals of past civilizations is on
full display. These stone vessels stand as silent witnesses to
centuries of life, death and resilience, a reminder that history
can be both unusual and very curious. Doug was worried,
(05:00):
worried about something most of us probably would never even
think about. He was worried about elk, more specifically, too
many elk, because Yellowstone National Park, home to nearly four
hundred species of animals and spanning three mountain states, was
in danger of ecological collapse. You see, Yellowstone was missing
one very important creature that brought balance to the whole ecosystem,
(05:23):
what is often called a keystone species, the North American
gray wolf, which had been completely absent from the park
for fifty years. But why. The story begins all the
way back in eighteen seventy four, when President Ulyssess Grant
designated Yellowstone as protected land and made it the very
first national park. Grant was moved after seeing photographs taken
(05:45):
by Ferdinand Hayden. One look at the roaming bison, swimming bears,
wide canyons, alpine rivers, and enormous blue sky was enough
to convince him this place was special. But just because
the land was protected didn't mean the wildlife were. In fact,
many visitors came to the park for the purpose of
hunting bison, antelope, and even predator species. Gray Wolves were
(06:08):
especially sought after for their pelts and because they frightened
the tourists, occasionally the wolves even attacked local cattle herds
on nearby farms. All this meant that by nineteen twenty six,
there were no wolves left in Yellowstone, and this was
the problem that had Doug Smith so worried to fully
understand it, though, you have to think about this as
dominoes all lined up in a neat row ready to fall,
(06:31):
with the first hitting the second, and the third and
so on. The absence of wolves in the park was
a problem because without wolves, the elk population had grown
out of control. The plants that they ate, especially aspen
and cottonwood trees, were now in danger of being overgrazed.
And since the elk had no predators to fear, they
also spent longer and longer way out in the open
(06:53):
grazing beside the river bank. And because there were too
many elk, the plants along the river that cleaned the
river died off and the river became cloudy. And because
the river was cloudy, many fish didn't survive well in
that cloudy water, which meant fewer food for bears, otters,
and birds of prey, And with a vegetation gone from
the riverbank beavers also had nothing to build their dams with,
(07:16):
and the creatures dependent on a wetland environment that was
created by those dams had nowhere to go. You can
see how one problem trickled down to all the other systems.
The solution here might seem obvious. It certainly did to
Doug Smith and the conservationists who were working with him.
If wolves were reintroduced into the park, this time with
(07:37):
protections in place to keep them from being hunted, the
rest might fall into place. As it turns out, that
was easier said than done. One big issue, well, that
would be the nearby ranchers. Yellowstone is situated between three states, Idaho, Wyoming,
and Montana, and in all three states there were farmers
and ranchers who felt worried about the plan to reintroduce
(07:58):
the wolves. Make sure the wolves would be in the
park and not on the ranchers land, But what was
to stop them from hunting down helpless livestock on nearby farms.
It wasn't as if the wolves could read or understand
a you are leaving Yellowstone sign. Then even fences weren't
enough to deter them. And this wasn't the first time
that the park's conservation efforts had actually impacted these farmers'
(08:20):
ways of life. Bison ate up all the grass that
the farmers wanted to graze their own cowson, and then
as more and more visitors came to Yellowstone, the National
Park Service needed to expand They paid the farmers well
for their land, but many were sorry to leave their homes. Eventually,
the conservationists and the ranchers settled on a compromise. Wolves
that wandered out of the park and onto private land
(08:42):
were fair game for farmers and ranchers to kill. As
long as wolves stayed in the park, however, they would
be safe and protected by the law. In January of
nineteen ninety five, wildlife officials captured fourteen Canadian wolves in
northern Alberta. These wolves, while not the same species as
the original Yellowstone wolves, were similar enough that they would
(09:03):
take the same role in the ecosystem. The conservationists even
made sure to pull wolves from different packs so that
they'd be able to breed and continue growing the population.
Once they were inside Yellowstone, and for months, the wolves
stayed in small acclamation pens within the park to get
comfortable with their new environment. Doug Smith was among the
researchers stationed to care for and observe the wolves to
(09:26):
see if they be ready for release. In March of
nineteen ninety five, the gates were opened and the fourteen
Canadian wolves stepped hesitantly into the snow to investigate their
new homes. Less than a year later, seventeen more joined
Yellowstone's wolf population. As for the predictions of Doug Smith
and other conservationists, they all came true. Within months of
(09:48):
the wolves being reintroduced, Yellowstone went from an ecosystem teetering
on the edge of collapse to a thriving, flourishing environment,
receiving more than four million visitors every year, most of
them probably I have no idea that the lush forests,
the clean rivers, and the huge range of species that
they see are all thanks to one heroic creature, the
(10:09):
Big Bad Wolf. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour
through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and
written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by
Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people
(10:29):
who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the
same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
(10:50):
Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com,
slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious, m
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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