Tiatoshi Jamir and Ditamulü Vasa - 3 - Archaeological evidence of beads from Naga ancestral sites: Implication for regional exchange networks Tiatoshi Jamir and Ditamulü Vasa Department of History & Archaeology, Nagaland University, India Abstract While the use of carnelian and glass beads in traditional attires feature as a long-standing tradition in Nagaland, yet what we least know or not at all, is the antiquity of its use in the Naga Hills. Naga villages bordering Myanmar in Mon, Kiphire and Tuensang Districts of Nagaland often reveals that carnelian and glass beads were obtained via Myanmar, as a result, prompting us to explore alternative potential routes of interaction and exchange other than the view on assumed Indian origin, however, not discounting other possible routes, such as the Silk route via the eastern corners of the sub-Himalayan region. Recent excavations in Nagaland have reported evidence of stone and glass beads from Naga ancestral sites. Drawing their archaeological context, the paper delves to examine their signifcance vis-à-vis the broader exchange networks of Northeast India with adjoining regions. Introduction The production of siliceous stone beads and pendants has a long history in India (Hung and Bellwood 2010: 238). This specialised craft tradition was widely manufactured in northwest India and Pakistan during Harappan times (Roux 2000). Right from the fourth century BCE to the second century CE, agate and carnelian were used to make many of the beads and pendants found widely in Southeast Asia, replacing the softer materials such as serpentine, limestone, marble and shell used to make ornaments beforehand (Higham and Thosarat 1998, cited in Hung and Bellwood 2010: 239). In Northeast India, the earliest use of beads (particularly bone beads) is reported from Photangkhun Longkhap, a rockshelter site in Nagaland dated to Cal BC 2465-1689 with a subsistence economy based on hunting and gathering, associated with cord mark potteries and edge ground tools (Jamir and Tetso (eds.), in press). Besides the use of both stone and glass beads widely used by the various native communities of Northeast India, there are also reported use of several plant materials used as beads among the Meteis of Manipur such as the fruits of Nelumbo nucifera, seeds of Coix lachryma- jobi , the trunk spine of Zanthoxylum limonella , stem of Stachytarpheta speciosa, fruits and seeds of Muscari commutatum, stem of Ocimum sanctum and Vitex negundo (see Singh and Singh 2005) and also the fruits of Solanum khasianum by the Angami Nagas (see Kanungo 2006: 160). Early ethnographic accounts exists on the Naga ornaments and their use (e.g. Butler 1855, 1875; Hutton 1929, 1930) but important queries on its source and distribution are rarely addressed in such publications except by few (e.g. Kanungo 2006). The site of Ambari situated in the modern Guwahati city of Assam, close to the Brahmaputra River and excavated for nine long seasons beginning from 1970-2009 (see Sharma 1989; Dutta (ed.) 2006) also yielded carnelian, jade, lapis lazuli and agate beads (Figs. 1, 2). Te site was well excavated vertically but its horizontal spread could not be well understood due its location within the heart of the city. While no chronometric dating for the site exist till date, the presence of datable terracotta sculptures permits the site to be divisible into three successive phases: Phase I: 2-7th cent CE; Phase II: 7-13th cent CE; Phase III: 13-17th cent CE. Adjoining the Northeast Region, Koiso, M and H. Endo eds. 2018 Trade and Values of Carnelian Ornaments in South Asia– Study on Change in ‘Tradition’ and Social System. Kobe Yamate Univ.