From conflict archaeology to archaeologies of conflict: remote survey in Kandahar, Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

Emerging from research with the Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership, a multi-year project using satellite imagery to detect, record and manage archaeological heritage, this paper examines the potentials of remote-sensing to not only monitor archaeological material culture, but also contemporary materiality as it is violently (re)assembled through conflict. Through systematic remote-sensed archaeological survey using diachronic imagery in Kandahar, Afghanistan, this work expands archaeological understanding of an under-surveyed region while exploring the impact of the region’s expansive military infrastructural footprint on cultural heritage. Further, this research considers the long history of landscapes of control and successive military occupations. Remote survey allows for continued generation of archaeological data during conflict, thereby enabling more thorough heritage management. Finally, this survey demonstrates that, although remote aerial technologies have been criticized as tools of violence, surveillance and control, satellite imagery can be used analytically to generate new understandings of and challenges to military infrastructural reach.

KEYWORDS:

• Afghan archaeology
• cultural heritage
• remote sensing
• military installations
• war in Afghanistan
• Kandahar
• infrastructure

Acknowledgments

Remote survey in Kandahar and subsequent research were made possible by the Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership, which is funded by an institutional grant from the US Department of State and the US Embassy in Kabul to the Oriental Institute at The University of Chicago. Special thanks are due to Dr. Gil Stein (Project PI), Dr. Kathryn Franklin, Dr. Emily Hammer, Dr. Joseph Masco, Dr. Owen Kohl, Dr. Rebecca Seifried, Anthony Lauricella and Gwendolyn Kristy for their continual support, guidance and insight. The assistance of Laura Tedesco (US DoS) in gaining access to BuckEye imagery and resources from the DigitalGlobe Foundation was invaluable.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. DigitalGlobe image from WV02 satellite, 10 August 2014.

2. DigitalGlobe image, 1 January 2017.

3. Aerial imagery courtesy Warwick Ball, 11 September 1958.

4. Corona Spy Satellite imagery, 26 May 1965.

5. DigitalGlobe image from the WV02 satellite, 9 June 2014.

6. ESRI Basemap satellite image dated 25 August 2013.

7. Structures removed prior to DigitalGlobe image from 6 February 2017.

8. BuckEye image, June 2010.

9. Image from the QuickBird-02 satellite, 8 June 2010.

10. Aerostat size varies from 75 feet in outlying areas to 117 feet in length in Kabul, and 300-foot-long models are in development (Bowley 2012). They are tethered about 1,500 to 10,000+ feet in the air (Bowley 2012, Timberg 2014). The range of numbers are a result of both the variety of models and the constantly improving technology.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of State [grant number SAF 200-15-CA014].

Notes on contributors

Emily Boak

Emily Boak (BA 2017, University of Chicago) is a Masters student in Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary and a former Heritage Analyst for the Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership at the Centre for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL) at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. An anthropological archaeologist working in the Caucasus and Central Asia, she is interested in the processes of knowledge and meaning production that surround archaeology. She has worked on field projects in Scotland, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Georgia.