ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several aspects of the project: the implications of policies and agendas, the roles of the various stakeholders, and the success of potentially promising strategies and approaches. If the archaeologists refrain from excavation of these remains, together with other exposed and consolidated remains, the Mes Aynak mining project could become an example of sustainable mining within a historic landscape, in contrast to, for example, Berkeley Pit, Montana. An evaluation of the progress of the Mes Aynak Archaeology Project in Afghanistan aims at helping to fill this gap in knowledge and experience. Mes Aynak is a complex Buddhist mining site where the potential for economic growth, the risk of environmental catastrophe, and the management of archaeological heritage seem to collide. It also seems opportune to outline the global and archaeological context of the first large-scale archaeological heritage management challenge, which is associated with the 2008 contract for the right to mine at Mes Aynak.
