Technical variation in the Konyak Naga tradition of steam-cooking pottery (Mon district, Nagaland, India)

This study examines technical variation in pottery production and use by foregrounding contingent, material-driven sources of uncertainty. Drawing on ethnoarchaeological research with Konyak Naga potters in Nagaland (India), we analyse how steam-cooking vessels, i.e. globular perforated pots used to prepare sticky rice, are produced, used, and degraded, and how these processes interact. By combining observations, interviews, and eye-tracking recordings, we demonstrate how breakage phenomena and the technical requirements of steam-cooking incentivise variation in forming techniques and operational sequences. Findings indicate potters display great technical flexibility in the production of steam-cooking vessels by alternating paddle-and-anvil, pinching and pestle-pressing techniques, as well as expediency in the acquisition and transmission of the craft, suggesting that adaptation to material constraints is embedded in practice. Furthermore, we also characterised the use-alteration traces specific to this cooking method, i.e. soot patterns, ash-based sealants, surface cracks and steam spalls, according to two household assemblages in Tanhai ( n = 12) and Shangnyu ( n = 3) villages, providing comparative criteria for interpreting steam-cooking evidence in the archaeological record, and also estimated vessel use-life from a 200-year-old assemblage. These results enhance our understanding of technical variation in pottery manufacture and use, as well as the archaeological visibility of steam-cooking methods.