If the person had entered the jar before the fire started, the ash would most likely be above and around the remains, settling onto them as the fire progressed after their death.

The ash being underneath suggests instead that the person entered the jar after fire was already present — entering a burning environment, choosing the jar as the best available refuge from a situation that was already catastrophic.

This is a detail that archaeologists and forensic specialists will examine very carefully during the ongoing analysis.

The spatial relationship between the ash and the bones — which layers are beneath, which are intermixed, which are above — can help establish the chronological sequence of events: when the fire began, when the person entered the jar, and what happened after.

The implication, if Vagalinski’s preliminary reading of the evidence is correct, is that this person was making a decision in the midst of a fire rather than before one began.