In keeping with its mission to enrich and expand the field of archaeology and related disciplines the PGIAR has a more than 20-year history of pioneering new developments in Sri Lankan archaeology, such as settlement archaeology, total archaeological landscape studies, urbanism, garden history, palaeoecology, the study of ancient iron production, archaeometallurgy, and opened up new directions in prehistory, the protohistoric transition, epigraphy, numismatics, art history, conservation and heritage management.