The Local and the Long-distance: Examining the Emergence of Early Farming in Nagaland

Michael Spate1*, Tiatoshi Jamir2, Robinson Huidrom2, Limasanen Longkumer2, Mepusangba2, Alison Betts3, David Tetso4, and Yabang2

The emergence of agriculture in Northeast India is still poorly understood and questions regarding the region as an independent centre of domestication remain unaddressed. Nagaland in the Indo-Burma Hills is home to a diverse range of traditional farming and subsistence systems, incorporating a range of local vegecultural foodways, blended with introduced East, South and Southeast Asian cereal and legume crops. This paper presents new macro- and micro-botanical evidence from New Phor, among the oldest known "Neolithic" farming sites in Nagaland, aiming to better understand the development of upland farming systems in the Indo-Burma Hills.