To my mind, every Indigenous archaeology practiced across the length and breadth of the world is uniquely situated within its own socio-cultural and political milieu. In this respect, no processes within its practice are identical in nature. Proceeding a step further from Felix Acuto’s experience of Latin American Indigenous archaeology, this discussion piece examines the nature of the Indigenous community’s involvement in archaeological research within a South Asian context, locating the frame within Northeast India, particularly Nagaland. This takes a rather more interesting turn when the engagement constitutes an archaeology ‘with, for and by Indigenous peoples’ themselves who belong to a certain Indigenous community, who are either inside or outside of the participant community. Engaging local people in archaeological excavations has long been commonplace in Indian archaeology. In most of excavations by John Marshall and Mortimer Wheeler of Harappan urban sites, one cannot fail but notice the ubiquitous frame of black-and-white photographs – local workers clad in white dhoti and turbans, seen in various working postures and gaits inside the trenches, aiding in daily routine digs with brushes and brooms, circular trays filled with soil and occasional scatterings of pickaxes and spades. With shifting powers from the British Raj and Indian archaeologists now taking charge of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) after Wheeler’s departure, it is still disheartening to notice that such imageries continue to persist in numerous field reports even within a post-colonial experience (for a critical appraisal, see Avikunthak 2021). What the images evoke is the sort of community engagement that the country has experienced for more than 150 years of Indian archaeology in practice. One may never know clearly for sure what the nature and extent of the local people’s participation in such large-scale digs was during colonial times, but this entices us to ask the few obvious questions – is such research made explicit within a participatory praxis, or can it be equally engaging and collaborative with equitable research aims? Or did such initiatives dismantle power structures and relations between local workers and the archaeologists leading the excavations? Until recently, community consultation and engagement have rarely been a part of the archaeological research agenda in India, with a few exceptions addressed by Rizvi (2006; 2020), Selvakumar (2006), Jamir (2014) and Menon and Varma (2019). Unfortunately, even today, archaeology in South Asia continues to demonstrate a lack of collaborative archaeological practice and instead continues to replicate colonial models of interaction with local communities (Rizvi 2008, 127). I, however, view the role of Indigenous community engagement in archaeological research as a starting point for decolonizing archaeological practice in Northeast India, particularly in Nagaland (Jamir 2024). Therefore, to underscore a contrast, I wish to draw a few case examples from the region of Northeast India.

Located on the eastern coast of Lesbos island in the north-east Aegean, Thermi emerges as one of the most emblematic sites in the Early Bronze Age. Since its excavation by Winifred Lamb in the early 1930s, it has been recognised as an early urban settlement, similarly to its equivalent insular sites on Lemnos, Chios and Samos. Although often linked to Anatolian influences due to similarities in pottery assemblages and material culture, especially in terms of morphology, Thermi’s ceramics have largely been confined to significant typological classifications without further analytical investigation. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive study encompassing morpho-stylistic, macroscopic and petrographic analysis of this ceramic assemblage across all settlement phases during the third millennium BC. Through petrographic analysis of pottery and raw material samples, this study has determined the provenance and allowed the characterisation of local and intra-island pottery production and consumption strategies. Additionally, it has identified evidence of Thermi’s extra-insular connectivity with various sources across the Aegean region. While certain ceramic manufacturing choices exhibit diachronic continuities, there is evidence of chronological patterning in the appearance of clay recipes. These changes correlate well with contemporaneous shifts in architectural developments, patterns of consumption of valued goods and the broader outreach of the settlement.

The analysis of the radiocarbon age of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is fundamental for understanding the aquatic component of the global carbon cycle, yet the technique is not routinely available at radiocarbon laboratories. This study presents validation experiments for an improved wet oxidation method for 14C-DOC analysis in a freshwater matrix. Emphasis in design protocol for the method was placed on the quantitative removal of inorganic carbon, and a background level consistent with modern accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon measurements. The method utilizes a pre-oxidized potassium persulfate oxidant in crimp-sealed vials with rigorous multi-stage helium purging to achieve and maintain a sample without atmosphere carbon dioxide and the contamination of modern 14C (14C-free). Method validation of 14C-free samples are demonstrated with procedural blanks, phthalic anhydride (PhA), and an International Atomic Energy Agency Oxalic Acid standard (IAEA-C8).