Department of History & Archaeology
Major Research Findings


  • Inter-disciplinary researches involving earth sciences, life sciences and the physical sciences in the study of early Naga ancestral sites.
  • Our current research program has successfully yielded direct archaeological evidence on early subsistence strategies of the Nagas and other prehistoric population in the region.
  • Our on-going inter-disciplinary research has been able to better understand the archaeological dataset of the Mid-Holocene period within Northeast India. We hope that our future research on the Mimi cave sites and the surrounding Ophiolite region will yield sites of greater antiquity to further in the global discussion of modern human migrations.
  • The Department also undertakes Community Archaeology program with local communities in identifying, interpreting and managing ancestral sites.
  • Our current research has enabled us to establish mutual collaborations with the following institutions:
    1. Department of Archaeology, Deccan College (Post-Graduate & Research Instt.), Pune-06: Bio-anthropological research on human skeletal remains).
    2. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow: Archaeo-botanical research & Radiocarbon dating.
    3. Beta Analytic Ltd., Miami, Florida: Radiocarbon & AMS Dating.
    4. Institute of Prehistoric & Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, Germany: Monumentality of Naga stone monuments.
    5. Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Austria: Palaeogenetics of Northeast prehistoric population
    6. Kobe Shukugawa Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan: Carnelian bead research.
    7. Charles McBurney Laboratory of Geoarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge: Soil Micro-morphology of cave sites from Nagaland.