Architecture abounded the early historic polity comprising what is now the Brahmaputra valley. Many of these structures and sculptures date back to the fourth to the twelfth centuries. Despite opulence in terms of material culture, there prevails an overall indifference towards the study of this period. This is now sufficiently established that such nonchalance is a byproduct of imperialist history, towards an eventful and culturally rich episode of the region’s past. Scientific explorations and excavations would be the only way to ascertain a definite idea about these early hubs of culture, administration and commerce. This paper presents part of my thesis, which undertakes an archival survey of the nineteenth to early twentieth-century search for the Kamarupa civilization that the colonial patrons of the history of Assam were often dismissive about. At the outset, the paper analyzes the accompanying surveys of these early historic sites by British military officials in the mid-nineteenth century. These early initiatives in Assam by colonial military officials and political agents induced the recovery (what the colonials termed ‘discovery’) of the monuments across the valley. But at that point, it was not in the manner of a systematic and scientific exploration, but rather in the nature of incidental encounters with antiquities. A more systematic and scientific search and further refinement of knowledge of the recovered antiquities was pursued meticulously by Assamese intelligentsia, often under the institutional aegis of the Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti. Through a survey of the early structures, it will be established that the imperialist appellations about the region, such as terra incognita, benighted province, etc., had less to do with the cultural reality of the region and more with a gap in knowledge. The paper is an attempt to address this gap following a historical method.