Documenting Anthropogenic Markers of Contemporary Activity Areas in the Garo Hills Region of Northeast India: An Ethnogeoarchaeological Approach

This study investigates contemporary traditional activity areas in the Garo Hills region of Northeast India to document anthropogenic markers and to understand the associated depositional and alteration processes in cultural soils using an Ethnogeoarchaeological approach. The methodology includes non-participant observational documentation of habitational and occupational activity areas and investigation of cultural soils associated with these activity areas, using soil thin-section imaging, XRD, FTIR, EDS, ICP-MS, and mass magnetic susceptibility analysis to identify anthropogenic markers. The primary contribution of the study is the documentation of micromorphological, mineralogical, elemental, and magnetic anthropogenic markers associated with living, food-making, animal-rearing, cultivation, wood-carving, and waste-disposal areas in the villages of Duragre, Tebronggre, Misimagre, and Gondenggre in the region. In the future, this documentation, combined with a larger sample size, can serve as an analog database, a methodological tool for investigating archaeological sites in the Garo Hills by identifying their anthropogenic markers and correlating them with the database.