I’d like to know what tasks in your job could be great to have a robot help with. What features should it have? Julie (11)

Dear Julie,

I’ve had a few similar questions lately about the use of robots in archaeology and to answer truthfully, it would be very difficult to design a robot that would be helpful. Most of the work done by archaeologists has to be done by hand: the digging especially, as it requires being able to follow the cut of the feature (and not excavating too much or too little), which can be quite hard depending on the geology, and retrieving all the finds (pottery, metal, bone…), some of those finds being tiny! It would take a very clever robot to be able to do that and I don’t think we will have the necessary technology for another few decades at least. Also, the recording of archaeological features includes taking photographs, drawing (a plan and a section) and making notes on soil colour, texture, taking measurements etc. I have never (not yet anyway!) encountered a robot with such a varied set of skills. But who knows what the future holds?

Now, talking to some of my colleagues, they mentioned that the best way a robot could help in archaeology would be with spoil management. It is true that archaeologists have to carry so many buckets and push so many wheelbarrows in order to excavate features that maybe a robot that could push the spoil away, or carry buckets would be very useful! It would allow archaeologists to spend more time digging, and it would limit the back-breaking work, which sounds like a win-win!

Odile, October 2025