As part of the Oriental Institute’s Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership (AHMP), from February 4–15, 2019, five members of the Afghanistan Institute of Archaeology (AIA), including its director, participated in a two-week intensive training course at the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL) Laboratory at the OI in Chicago. This intensive hands-on training in the use of our geospatial database had two main goals: a) recording and managing archaeological sites, and b) the use of this information to ensure that future economic development projects in Afghanistan take into account the need to preserve the country’s rich archaeological heritage. At the conclusion of the project, which is funded by the U.S. Embassy Kabul, we will turn over the entire database to the AIA, which will be the primary archive for this material in Afghanistan. This training is essential for the sustainability of the geospatial database as a resource for ongoing and future heritage management in Afghanistan.
