Newsletter: Clarification re: Archaeobot

[THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE]

ArchaeoBot is an experimental research project and should not be understood as having conducted or produced the archaeological excavations and discoveries discussed in relation to early Philippine seafaring and ancient technologies as presented in Dr. Alfred Pawlik’s March 27, 2026 Ateneo Breakthroughs lecture and the subsequent April 1, 2026 Ateneo news story. ArchaeoBot is a developing concept intended to assist future archaeological work through robotics, sensing, and machine learning. It is a prospective tool for excavation support, not a standalone solution nor the source of the field discoveries themselves.

All these excavations are the product of many years of painstaking archaeological research, supported by the State and private foundations, and carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scholars and specialists in collaboration with government institutions and local communities.

Accordingly, any discussion of ArchaeoBot should be framed with care. Currently, it is a promising experimental innovation for possible future assistive use in archaeology. While the ArchaeoBot project's vision is for robotic explorers to be able to autonomously carry out archaeological excavations and record, identify and retrieve finds, particularly in challenging or hazardous environments, the preparation, organization, controlling, and supervision of archaeological fieldwork, as well as the processing and analysis of the finds and data, however, will remain in the hands of qualified archaeologists for the foreseeable future.

[END OF PRESS RELEASE]