Human Skeletal Remains from Jotsoma, Nagaland: Osteobiographic Studies

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The present work is being attempted for the first time in the northeastern part of India. It has been oriented in such lines, providing vital clues on the human remains from Jotsoma, a small hamlet from the district of Kohima, Nagaland, bringing to light information on the mortuary treatment and the general morphometric and palaeopathological conditions experienced by the population that once occupied the site. This work largely encompasses aspects on the preservation conditions of the skeletons, cranial and post-cranial descriptions of each individual, dental pathology and sex determination. The researchers hope that this small piece of work will further bring forth similar researches and encouraging strides in the future endeavours of fellow archaeologists and anthropologists of this part of India.

Veena Mushrif Tripathy

is a freelance research scholar, formerly associated with the Deccan College and was a fellow of Anthropological Survey of India. Her areas of specialization are: palacopathology and dental morphology.

Tia Toshi Jamir

is a lecturer in Archaeology, Department of History & Archaeology Nagaland University, Kohima, Nagaland. He is one of the principal excavators of the site at Jotsoma.

Ditamulu Vasa

is a lecturer in Archaeology, Dept of History & Archaeology Nagaland University, Kohima, Nagaland. She has been actively involved with the excavation at Jotsoma.

S.R. Walimbe

is a reader in department of archaeology in the Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute. He is a renowned scholar specializing in Biological Anthropology with special interest in human skeletal biology, in the topics related to cranial morphometry, palaeopathology, palaeodemography, dental anthropology and ethnoarchaeology. He has a number of research publications (national and international) to his credit.

The region of Nagaland is hardly acquainted with avenues that need to be explored scientifically. It is based on this premise that the present work is directed towards an interdisciplinary perspective.

This report should also prove as an excellent example of an interdepartmental collaboration. The archaeological excavations at the site of Jotsoma were carried out by the Nagaland University under the leadership of the second and third author. The role of these two authors was limited only for archaeological investigations of the site. The anthropological examinations on the human skeletal remains were undertaken at Deccan College, Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune by the first author under the supervision of the fourth author. The archaeological team of authors did not play any role in analytical or interpretive phase of the anthropological study. This report is primarily confined only to the anthropological aspect of the study and the archaeological context is only marginally discussed.

The study of human skeletal remains has achieved increasing importance within the field of archaeology. For any cemetery, whether the dead are interred with grave furniture or whatsoever, the use of potential analytical techniques is broad ranging. The archaeological investigation of survival, position and association may be complemented with other macroscopic and microscopic studies to substantially increase the information collected from human remains.

The present work is oriented along such lines, providing vital clues on the human remains form Jotsoma, a small hamlet from the district of Kohima, Nagaland, bringing to light information on the mortuary treatment and the general morphometric and palaeopathological conditions experienced by the population that once occupied the site. The main aim of the excavating the site habitation-cum-burial site of Jotsoma was to understand its temporal framework so as to view the mortuary treatment in the light of their respective cultural context. The observations presented in this monograph are not intended to interpret the social characteristics of the mortuary complex or furnish a straight-forward proposition on the nature of the society in existence in this regard, which obviously is beyond the scope of the monograph. Instead, this work largely encompasses aspects on the preservation conditions of the skeletons, cranial and post-cranial descriptions of each individual, dental pathology and sex determination. Nonetheless, in the present state of knowledge, such kind of research being the first attempt in the Northeastern part of India, it is hoped that this small piece of work would further bring forth similar research and encouraging strides in the future endeavours of fellow archaeologists and anthropologists of this part of the region of India.

Since its inception, archaeology of Northeast India remained an important academic concern for the Centre. This is reflected in its research activities, seminars and publications. The Centre has been able to mobilize scholars from Northeastern region and share their understanding of archaeology and tradition of this region with researchers from other parts of country. This has immensely enriched us, located as we are, at a distance from the immensely significant region.

The history of archaeological research in Northeast India goes back to late nineteenth century, initiated by the European scholars-administrators, military personnel and missionaries. It gradually attracted indigenous scholars of the emerging middle class. The creation of a number of states in the post-independence period has further accelerated the process of expansion of indigenous scholar-ship. There had been substantial archaeological work, probably not to well organized and inadequately published in different states of the region. It has now become imperative to systematize available on the multi-faceted aspect of archaeology in Northeast India.

It is in this context that we responded enthusiastically to a proposal from our friend Tia Toshi Jamir of the Department of History and Archaeology, Nagaland University. Tia Toshi and his col-leagues including senior faculty member from the Deccan College had been working on different aspects of archaeology of Nagaland an area of immense archaeological significance but sadly deficient in published data. This team excavated human skeletal remains from a megalithic burial site at Jotsoma near Kohima, capital of Nagaland. It was only natural that skeletal remains were subjected to detail technical studies by Tia Toshi and colleagues from the Deccan College, Pune.

This is probably a first ever published palaeodemographic study on region. Apparently, there were no takers for such technical publication and we took up this publication. We are happy that the book will now be available to scholarly community. I congratulate the authors for undertaking such an important work. My thanks go to Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya for editorial advice, layout and cover design. Without his help the book would not have come out. Shri Arjan Basu Roy has printed the book within a short period of time.

I hope this will generate adequate interest in the archaeology of Northeast region.