In deciding to write about the prehistory and archaeology of north-east India Manjil Hazarika has chosen one of the most complex yet understudied topics in the archaeology of South Asia. For that alone, this volume deserves praise. The contents, too, do not disappoint. The book's foci are: the subsistence strategies and lifeways of the earliest communities in north-east India; as well as the movements of, interactions between and diversity within prehistoric populations that lived in this remote and marginalized part of India. In exploring these topics, Hazarika engages with multiple forms of evidence – archaeological, historical, linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic – as well as the theoretical frameworks of the disciplines that underpin them. The result is a confident work with an astonishingly broad scope that is both engaging and authoritative.

The volume starts by setting out two core problems: a fundamental lack of coherent archaeological and historical research on north-east India; and the importance of getting to grips with what is one of the most culturally complex and diverse regions of Asia for answering questions about population movements and ways of life in prehistory. Discussion of these issues is well grounded in their historiography and previous theoretical approaches and methods.

The following three chapters provide a comprehensive background to the region and forms of evidence that are marshalled. First, we are introduced to human–environment interactions in north-east India, and the ways adaptive strategies have developed in response to ecological settings. In discussing this, Hazarika amply demonstrates the necessity of taking a multi-disciplinary approach. Second, we read of the linguistic groups of the north-east – one of the most linguistically significant areas in the world – and the value of linguistic and genetic data in reconstructing sequences of population movement and their applicability in this area. Hazarika then demonstrates how these can (and need to) be correlated with what can be inferred from local folklore traditions, and historical evidence. Third, there is a synthesis of previous archaeological research on this and neighbouring regions. This serves as both a presentation of existing knowledge and a definition of the state of the art. Synopses of what we know are arranged by geographic area, which reflects patterns of earlier data collection. While this way of presenting data is understandable, it is slightly cumbersome. It requires a little more work on the part of the reader to take the information and transcend the modern administrative and political boundaries that had little to do with the deep time history of the area.

In chapter 5 we arrive at the core of the volume – the results of the author's own research: an archaeological and ethnographic survey of the Garbhanga forest reserve in Assam, which would have been at the intersection of these interweaving strands of ecological adaptation, movement and interaction. This survey, we read, was carried out to gather evidence that would: (1) improve our understanding of human–environment relationships; and (2) enable us to formulate a model of prehistoric early farming cultures. Sadly, the results of the archaeological survey are slim, consisting of a brief account of the remains of a single settlement site encountered in the forest reserve. Of course, a paucity of visible archaeology within a forested environment is hardly the author's fault. Yet it is a shame that the results are not discussed in greater depth and presented with higher quality images. The results of the ethnographic survey are, in contrast, much richer. The archaeological reader will be cautious of too uncritical a use of ethnographic parallels. Such information is normally used to formulate hypotheses that can be tested archaeologically. Yet, what do we do when there is very little archaeological research? In this situation, that is to say in the study of this region, anthropological enquiry has to play a far greater role. Hazarika problematizes this well, and presents a detailed study of how the main group living in the area live and subsist. Modern cultural and subsistence practices are all described in vivid detail.

With the modern setting firmly established in our minds, chapter 6 considers the existing archaeological knowledge and understanding of the spread and domestication of plants and animals in north-east India. It then asks (somewhat rhetorically) what the archaeological evidence can tell us, both in terms of the evidence we have (which is sorely lacking), and if systematic investigations were to take place. This is followed by a synthesis of the volume as a whole, which reviews the evidence for: early farming in the region; linguistic palaeontology and what it can tell us about movement of people vis-a-vis crop cultivation (in particular early rice agriculture); existing population genetics data; and what else can be inferred about the movement and interaction of populations through historical processes of trade and state formation. These are all deftly tied back to the results of the preceding survey. In concluding, the volume ends not so much with a hard and fast conclusion (though the observations that are teased out from the preceding syntheses are certainly insightful), but rather, and far more usefully, with an articulation of the potential for future research. What we are left with is, in essence, a manifesto and road map for future research in this area.

This ambitious volume promises much, and for the most part it delivers on those promises. It provides the most up-to-date and holistic account of the archaeology and prehistory of north-east India; and in doing so it stands alone as the first such study in this area. It also stands apart as an excellent example of multidisciplinary research in a field where this is far from the norm. That in the end it is unable to provide many firm conclusions is not because of any limitations of the research. It is because this entire region is, as the author himself paraphrases, archaeological terra incognita; and it is here that the real value of this study in laying the foundation for future research becomes singularly apparent.