Prof. dr. Tiatoshi Jamir

Tiatoshi Jamir (PhD, Deccan College, Pune, 2005) is a Professor of Archaeology in the Department of History & Archaeology, Nagaland University whose deep interests situate around Northeast Indian prehistory, Naga monumentality, and explores ways of learning and knowing the human story of Northeast India’s past, particularly Nagaland, from an Indigenous lens.

Over a career spanning more than two decades thus far, his research role as an Indigenous archaeologist is best known from his long-standing community engagements with descent communities in archaeological research of Naga ancestral sites, and offering a decolonizing perspective to the practice of archaeology in NE India. His ongoing research on the cave archaeology of Nagaland also foregrounds the need to reconsider Northeast India as an important corridor of early human migration.

Jamir’s continuing interdisciplinary research with both national and international institutions makes effort to better understand the archaeological datasets of the Mid-Holocene and the Late Holocene scenario of Northeast India, thus prompting global discussions on the nature of economic and technological regimes during the Holocene in the region.

Key publications:

• Jamir, T., Tetso, D., Venuh, Z. 2017. Recent archaeological investigation around the Naga Metamorphics and Ophiolite Belt of the Indo-Myanmar Border, in: Paddayya, K., Basak, B. (eds.), Prehistoric Research in the Subcontinent: A Reappraisal and New Directions. New Delhi: Primus Books, 259-280.
• Wunderlich, M., Jamir, T., Müller, J., Rassmann, K., Vasa, D. 2021. Societies in Balance: Monumentality and feasting activities among southern Naga communities, Northeast India. PLoS ONE 16(3), 1–36. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246966.
• Jamir, T. 2021. Locating the Practice of Ethnography and Archaeology in Nagaland: Early Collections and Recent Trends. Puratattva 51, 166-188.
• Mitri, M., Jamir, T., Mepusangba., Syiemlieh, H., Darnei, L., Thakuria, T., Kharpuri, L. 2022. Recent research on the stone jars of Northeast India: Evidence from East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. Archaeological Research in Asia 31, 100393. DOI: 10.1016/j.ara.2022.100393.
• Jamir, J., and Müller, J. 2022. Northeast Indian Megaliths: Monuments and Social Structures, in: Laporte, L., Large, J-M., Nespoulous, L., Scarre, C., Steimer-Herbet, T. (eds.), Megaliths of the World. UK: Archaeopress, 447-474.