My team are trying to make an artefact cleaning machine that sprays water or scrubs to clean the artefacts. Do you have any tips on this? Ethan (11)

Dear Ethan,

I think it might be very difficult to come up with a machine that could clean archaeological artefacts. First of all, it would have to be adapted to different types of materials (as in, some metal finds cannot be cleaned with water for example), but also to the type of artefact. Modern pottery (china etc) can be scrubbed quite hard but what about Neolithic or Iron Age pottery that can be very fragile? Your machine would need to have various degrees of sensitivity, and be able to detect what kind of material (and sometimes even how old) the object is so it can be treated accordingly. When we clean archaeological finds in the lab, we use many different tools, ranging from toothbrushes to wooden sticks, but also some chemicals (used for metal corrosion for example).

Your machine would have to know exactly what kind of artefact it is dealing with, what technique should be employed to clean it, and even how much pressure should be used so as to clean efficiently without damaging the object.

It is a wonderful idea and would really help archaeologists but the machine would have to be extremely versatile, as well as being equipped with many different tools in order for this to work. I’m looking forward to see what you will come up with!

Odile, January 2026