Episode 6 : Archaeologists Under Fire / Battlezone Archaeology

Today’s episode is a little different to others; I speak to Brent Huffman, a filmmaker with a passion for a site in Afghanistan Mes Aynak is under threat from a Chinese mining company who wish to perform open cast mining on the site to acquire the copper ore underneath. In this episode, Brent describes his motivation for travelling in a very dangerous part of Afghanistan and what he saw on site; I ask him about how his opinion of archaeology has changed over the course of filming and he describes his frustration with the politics of the site preventing meaningful salvage of the history. Some of the things talked about are very difficult to hear and I want to put a slight disclaimer for listeners to be aware of some of the occupational dangers of working in this part of the world.