North-East India: A Neolithic Enigma (4000 - 1000 BCE)

Once a corridor for cultures, sadly Assam and the North East of India are still largely, what archaeologist Prof M K Dhavalikar famously called, ‘terra incognita’ – a region that has not been mapped or documented. Thick, wild forests that make exploration difficult and excavation almost impossible, and communities that still have strong tribal roots with no written history, make the work of archaeologists even more difficult.

No wonder the region has traditionally been more a laboratory for anthropologists than archaeologists. But things have changed a little, thanks to the pioneering efforts of archaeologist T C Sharma and the teams who followed him. In fact, as recently as 2017, a study using the latest technology helped date one of the early Neolithic sites there.