What tools do you use and how could the technology be improved? Maddyn, Phoenix-Irie, Riele and Kiana (10)

Maddyn, Phoenix-Irie, Riele and Kiana’s questions:

• What are archaeologists main tools?
• What is a tool, that already exists to help an archaeologists to see a clear picture of underground?
• What does already exist that has and x-ray and can help you in archaeology?
• what is  tool that archaeologist use but is not as advanced? How can we make it more advanced or how can invent a tool that is more advanced than the tools that is in existence right now?

Dear Maddyn, Phoenix-Irie, Riele and Kiana,

I will try and answer your questions (what is a tool that already exists to help an archaeologists to see a clear picture of underground, what does already exist that has and x-ray and can help you, what is tool that archaeologist use but is not as advanced? How can we make it more advanced or how can invent a tool that is more advanced than the tools that is in existence right now and what are archaeologists main tools) as best as I can!

First of all, there are several non-invasive techniques that allow archaeologists to see what is underground. I detailed them in another one of my recent answers but here is a copy:

Those techniques include aerial photography (taking images from above in order to reveal soil patterns that could indicate the presence of a site or settlement), LIDAR (that creates 3D maps of the landscape, thus highlighting variations in topography/landscape), Magnetometry (that measures variations in the Earth’s magnetic field and can detect buried features such as hearths or even metal objects), Resistivity Surveys (that similarly measure the electrical resistance of the soil and can reveal buried features) and Ground Penetrating Radar (that sends radar pulses to the ground and creates a 3D image of buried features).

Just to add that archaeologists do use X-rays too, but mostly during the post-excavation process as they are mainly used to analyse artefacts in a non-destructive way: they are especially useful when we are faced with heavily corroded metal finds, or in order to reveal a material’s composition without damaging the object.

Now the main tools used by archaeologists on site are mattocks, shovels, and trowels of course. It would be difficult to improve on those tools as most of the work done by archaeologists has to be done by hand. I could even say that the REAL important tools an archaeologist needs are a brain and good eyes. Most of our work consists of digging and recording, interpreting what we find. Unfortunately technology is of very little assistance on site: yes, we now use GPS devices to plan sites, and tablets can be used instead of writing down information about features but on the whole, most of the work still has to be done by hand.

Let’s see the positive though: archaeologists will never be replaced by machines or by AI! We will always need people to do the work.

Odile, October 2025