Prehistory and Archaeology of Northeast India: Multidisciplinary Investigation in an Archaeological Terra Incognita

The book is multi-disciplinary in its scope and has as its objective the reconstruction of the subsistence strategies and way of life of the prehistoric communities in Northeast India and their movements, dispersals, and settlements. The essential nature of this work is dictated by the reality that the scanty nature of archaeological data from the region has compelled us to gather evidence from all possible scientific lines of enquiry in order to paint a vivid picture of the development of early farming societies, who must have been the ancestors of some or all of the present-day indigenous ethnic groups. This evidence has been gathered from ecological, ethnographical, anthropological, and genetic sciences to inspire an interpretation of the available archaeological data for examining linguistic hypotheses of early migration and dispersals of people in this region. The study strives not only to gather a holistic understanding of the prehistoric people but also to lay a foundation for future research strategies and to set a relevant methodology suitable for the region.