Dr. Ruokuonuo Rose Yhome obtained her B.A. degree from St. Joseph’s College, University of Nagaland in 2012, and her master’s degree from the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune in 2014. She then received her Ph.D. in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Veena Mushrif Tripathy at Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune. Her doctoral research focused on microwear analysis of human dentition recovered from the Jotsoma, Leshemi, Ranyak Khen, and Rikhelüwong sites in Nagaland.
At Highland Institute, an independent research center located in Nagaland, Dr. Yhome worked as Programme Manager and supervised field teams. During such efforts, she collaborated with international research teams from the U.K., including the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development and the University of Leeds, as well as with national teams from India, including Oxford Policy Management and the World Bank.
Although diet is broadly accepted as a critical parameter for understanding human behavior and ecological adaptation, and dental microwear analysis (DMA) is emerging as a preferred method by which bioarcheologists and paleontologists can reconstruct the diets of past peoples, the latter remains largely unused at India’s most important archaeological sites. During her Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship, Dr. Yhome aims to address this significant lacuna by exploring the dietary behaviors of Chalcolithic, including Harappan and Iron Age populations, through an analysis of dental remains recovered from Harrapan, Chalcolithic, and Megalithic sites in India.