Abstract
Archaeologists spend considerable time orienting and drawing ceramic fragments by hand for documentation, to infer their manufacture, the nature of the discovery site and its chronology, and to develop hypotheses about commercial and cultural exchanges, social organisation, resource exploitation, and taphonomic processes. This study presents a survey of existing solutions to the time-consuming problem of orienting and drawing pottery fragments. Orientation is based on the 3D geometry of pottery models, which can now be acquired in minutes with low-cost 3D scanners. Several methods are presented: they are based on normal vectors, or circle fittings, or profile fittings. All these methods seek to determine the optimal position of the rotation axis. We also present and discuss new approaches and improvements to existing methods. We have developed a suite of functions for the computer-assisted orientation and drawing of archaeological pottery. The profile and contours of the fragment, as well as any possible decoration, can be depicted in various ways: photorealistic rendering or dotted patterns, calculated by ambient occlusion, combined or not with artificial light. The general workflow, evaluated using both synthetic and real-world fragments, is rapid, accurate, and reproducible. It drastically reduces the amount of routine work required to document ceramic artefacts. The information produced, together with the 3D representation of the fragments, can easily be archived and/or exchanged within the archaeological community for further research. The source code (built in the R environment), together with an installation notice and examples, is freely downloadable.
Supplemental Material
Available for Download
Supplemental movie, appendix, image and software files for, Computer-Assisted Orientation and Drawing of Archaeological Pottery
- Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins. 1989. Archaeological Illustration. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
- Edward B. Banning. 2006. The Archaeologist’s Laboratory: The Analysis of Archaeological Data. Springer Science 8 Business Media.Google Scholar
- Francesco Banterle, Barak Itkin, Matteo Dellepiane, Lior Wolf, Marco Callieri, Nachum Dershowitz, and Roberto Scopigno. 2017. VASESKETCH: Automatic 3D representation of pottery from paper catalogue drawings. In Proceedings of the 14th IAPR International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR’17). 8.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Yan Cao and David Mumford. 2002. Geometric structure estimation of axially symmetric pots from small fragments. In Structure Estimation of Axially Symmetric Pots from Small Fragments.. Article 6.Google Scholar
- Winston Chang, Jow Cheng, J. J. Allaire, Yihui Xie, and Jonathan McPherson. 2017. Shiny: Web Application Framework for R. R package version 1.0.3. Retrieved October 30, 2017 from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=shiny.Google Scholar
- Nikolai Chernov. 2010. Circular and Linear Regression: Fitting Circles and Lines by Least Squares. Chapman 8 Hall/CRC Monographs on Statistics 8 Applied Probability, CRC Press.Google Scholar
- Paolo Cignoni, Marco Callieri, Massimiliano Corsini, Matteo Dellepiane, Fabio Ganovelli, and Guido Ranzuglia. 2008. MeshLab: An open-source mesh processing tool. In Proceedings of the 6th Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference. 129--136.Google Scholar
- Fernand Cohen, Zexi Liu, and Taslidere Ezgi. 2013. Virtual reconstruction of archaeological vessels using expert priors and intrinsic differential geometry information. Computers and Graphics 37, 1--2 (2013), 41--53. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lesley Collet. 2012. An Introduction to Drawing Archaeological Pottery. Institute for Archaeologists, Whiteknights.Google Scholar
- David B. Cooper, Andrew Willis, Stuart Andrews, Jill Baker, Yan Cao, Dongjin Han, Kongbin Kang, Weixin Kong, Frederic F. Leymarie, Xavier Orriols, Senem Velipasalar, Eileen L. Vote, Martha S. Joukowsky, Benjamin B. Kimia, David H. Laidlaw, and David Mumford. 2002. Bayesian pot-assembly from fragments as problems in perceptual grouping and geometric-learning. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Pattern Recognition. 297--302. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Paolo Cortez. 2014. Modern Optimization with R. Springer International Publishing.Google Scholar
- Brian D. Dillon. 1985. The Student’s Guide to Archaeological Illustrating. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
- Philippe Dolmazon. 2007. Profilograph. Retrieved October 30, 2017 from http://www.dolmazon.de/profilographe_e.htm.Google Scholar
- Fabio Ganovelli, Massimiliano Corsini, Sumanta Pattanaik, and Marco Di Benedetto. 2014. Introduction to Computer Graphics: A Practical Learning Approach. Chapman and Hall/CRC. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Michael Garland and Paul S. Heckbert. 1997. Surface simplification using quadratic error metrics. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH’97). 209--216. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wiesława Gawrysiak-Leszczyńska. 2013. Jak Rysować Zabytki Archeologiczne. Muzeum Archeologiczne w Biskupinie, Biskupin.Google Scholar
- Ayelet Gilboa, Avshalom Karasik, Ilan Sharon, and Uzy Smilansky. 2004. Towards computerized typology and classification of ceramics. Journal of Archaeological Science 31 (2004), 681--694.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Nick Griffiths, Anne Jenner, and Christine Wilson. 1990. Drawing Archaeological Finds: A Handbook. University College London, London.Google Scholar
- Maria Letizia Gualandi, Roberto Scopigno, Lior Wolf, Julian Richards, Jaume Buxeda i Garrigos, Michael Heinzelmann, Miguel Angel Hervas, Llorenc Vila, and Massimo Zallocco. 2016. ArchAIDE archaeological automatic interpretation and documentation of cEramics. In Proceedings of the EUROGRAPHICS Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage (2016). 4. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Radim Halíř. 1997. Estimation of the axis of rotation of fragments of archaeological pottery. In Proceedings of the 21st Workshop of the Austrian Association for Pattern Recognition. 175--184.Google Scholar
- Radim Halíř. 1999. An automatic estimation of the axis of rotation of fragments of archaeological pottery: A multi-step model-based approach. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualisation and Interactive Digital Media (WSCG’99). 7.Google Scholar
- Radim Halíř and Jan Flusser. 1997. Estimation of profiles of sherds of archaeological pottery. In Proceedings of the Czech Pattern Recognition Workshop (CPRW’97). 126--130.Google Scholar
- Dongjin Han and Hern-Soo Hahn. 2014. Axis estimation and grouping of rotationally symmetric object segments. Pattern Recognition 47, 1 (2014), 296--312. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kateřina Hlaváčkovaá-Schindler, Martin Kampel, and Robert Sablatnig. 2001. Fitting of a closed planar curve representing a profile of an archaeological fragment. In Proceedings of the 2001 Conference on Virtual Reality, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage. 263--270. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Andrey Iones, Anton Krupkin, Mateu Sbert, and Sergey Zhukov. 2003. Fast, realistic lighting for video games. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 23, 3 (2003), 54--64. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Reiko Ishihara-Brito. 2011. Archaeological illustrations of ceramics: Drawing conventions and practices in the maya area. In Handbook for the 1st Annual Maya at the Lago Workshop , 2011. 16.Google Scholar
- Martin Kampel and Robert Sablatnig. 1999. On 3D modelling of archaeological sherds. In Proceedings of International Workshop on Synthetic-Natural Hybrid Coding and Three-Dimensional Imaging. 95--98.Google Scholar
- Martin Kampel and Robert Sablatnig. 1999. On estimating the position of fragments on rotational symmetric pottery. In Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on 3-D Digital Imaging and Modelling. 455--462. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Martin Kampel and Robert Sablatnig. 2003. An automated pottery archival and reconstruction system. The Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation 14 (2003), 111--120.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Martin Kampel and Robert Sablatnig. 2003. Profile-based pottery reconstruction. In Proceedings of the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop, 2003. 1--6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Martin Kampel and Robert Sablatnig. 2007. Rule based system for archaeological pottery classification. Pattern Recognition Letters 28, 6 (2007), 740--747. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Martin Kampel, Robert Sablatnig, and Hubert Mara. 2005. Robust 3D reconstruction of archaeological pottery based on concentric circular rills. In Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Image Analysis of Multimedia Interactive Services. 14--22.Google Scholar
- Avshalom Karasik. 2010. A complete, automatic procedure for pottery documentation and analysis. In Proceedings of the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW’10). 6.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Avshalom Karasik and Uzy Smilansky. 2008. 3D scanning technology as a standard archaeological tool for pottery analysis: Practice and theory. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 5 (2008), 1148--1168.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Avshalom Karasik and Uzy Smilansky. 2011. Computerized morphological classification of ceramics. Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (2011), 2644--2657.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Àlex Méndez-Fellu and Matteu Sbert. 2009. From obscurances to ambient occlusion: A survey. Visual Computer 25 (2009), 181--196. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shengqiao Li. 2011. Concise formulas for the area and volume of a hyperspherical cap. Asian Journal of Mathematics 8 Statistics 4, 1 (2011), 66--70.Google Scholar
- Jun Liu, Mingquan Zhou, Guohua Geng, and Reziwanguli Xiamixiding. 2017. Broken pottery relic reassembling based on mixed feature vector. Boletin Tecnico/Technical Bulletin 55, 5 (2017), 1--9.Google Scholar
- Hubert Mara. 2009. Pottery Plotted by Laser -- 3D Acquisition for Documentation and Analysis of Symmetry of Ancient Ceramics. Springer Berlin, 379--390.Google Scholar
- Hubert Mara, Martin Kampel, Franco Niccolucci, and Robert Sablatnig. 2007. Ancient coins 8 ceramics - 3D and 2D documentation for preservation and retrieval of lost Heritage. In Proceedings of the 2nd ISPRS International Workshop 3D-ARCH 2007: 3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization of Complex Architectures. 12--13.Google Scholar
- Hubert Mara and Julia Portl. 2013. Acquisition and documentation of vessels using high-resolution 3D-scanners. In Neue Interdisziplin are Dokumentations- und Visualisierungsmethoden, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Österreich, Beiheft 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (VÖAW). 25--40.Google Scholar
- Hubert Mara and Robert Sablatnig. 2006. Orientation of fragments of rotationally symmetrical 3D-shapes for archaeological documentation. In Proceedings of the 3rd International 3D Data Processing, Visualization, and Transmission (3DPVT’06). 1064--1071. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ricardo Maronna and Victor J. Yohai. 2000. Robust regression with both continuous and categorical predictors. Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference 89, 1--2 (2000), 197--214.Google ScholarCross Ref
- John C. Nash. 2014. On best practice optimization methods in R. Journal of Statistical Software 60, 2 (2014), 1--14.Google ScholarCross Ref
- John C. Nash and Ravi Varadhan. 2011. Unifying optimization algorithms to aid software system users: Optimx for R. Journal of Statistical Software 43, 9 (2011), 1--14.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Clive Orton, Paul Tyres, and Alan Vince. 1993. Pottery in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
- Geoffrey Oxholm and Ko Nishino. 2013. A flexible approach to reassembling thin artifacts of unknown geometry. Journal of Cultural Heritage 14, 1 (2013), 51--61.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Georgios Papaioannou, Tobias Schreck, Anthousis Andreadis, Pavlos Mavridis, Robert Gregor, Ivan Sipiran, and Konstantinos Vardis. 2017. From reassembly to object completion: A complete systems pipeline. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10, 2 (2017), Article 8, 23 pages. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stephen Phillips, Paul Walland, Stefano Modafferi, Michela Spagnuolo, Chiara Eva Catalano, Dominic Oldman, Ayellet Tal, Illan Shimshoni, and Sorin Hermon. 2016. GRAVITATE: Geometric and semantic matching for cultural heritage artefacts. In Proceedings of the Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage. 199--202. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nada A. Rasheed and Md Jan Nordin. 2015. A survey of computer methods in reconstruction of 3D archaeological pottery objects. International Journal of Advanced Research 3, 3 (2015), 712--724.Google Scholar
- Prudence M. Rice. 1987. Pottery Analysis. A Sourcebook. The University of Chicago Press, London.Google Scholar
- Francisco Javier Melero Rus, Alejandro J. León, Francesco Contreras, and Juan Carlos Torres. 2004. A new system for interactive vessel reconstruction and drawing. BAR International Series 1227 (2004), 78--81.Google Scholar
- Francisco Javier Melero Rus, Juan Carlos Torres, and Alejandro J. León. 2003. On the interactive 3D reconstruction of Iberian vessels. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage. 71--78. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Robert Sablatnig, Hubert Mara, and Martin Kampel. 2005. Estimation of rotational symmetry based on concentric circular rill. In Proceedings of the 29th Workshop of the Austrian Association for Pattern Recognition (OAGM/AAPR) and Joint Hungarian-Austrian Conference on Image Processing and Pattern Recognition.Google Scholar
- Idit Saragusti, Avshalom Karasik, Ilan Sharon, and Uzy Smilansky. 2005. Quantitative analysis of shape attributes based on contours and section profiles in artifact analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 32 (2005), 841--853.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Stefan Schlager. 2013. Soft-Tissue Reconstruction of the Human Nose: Population Differences and Sexual Dimorphism. Ph.D. dissertation. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg.Google Scholar
- Stefan Schlager. 2016. Morpho: Calculations and visualizations related to geometric morphometrics (version 2.4.1.1). Retrieved October 30, 2017 from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Morpho/Morpho.pdf.Google Scholar
- Prabodh Shirvalkar. 2016. Analytical Drawing (Chapter 14). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 217--230.Google Scholar
- Neil G. Smith, Avshalom Karasik, Tejaswini Naryanan, Eric S. Olson, Uzy Smilansky, and Thomas E. Levy. 2014. The pottery informatics query database: A new method for mathematic and quantitative analyses of large regional ceramic datasets. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21 (2014), 212--250.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Melanie Steiner. 2005. Approaches to Archaeological Illustration: A Handbook. Council for British Archaeology, York.Google Scholar
- RStudio Team. 2016. RStudio. Integrated Development for R. Retrieved October 30, 2017 from http://www.rstudio.com/.Google Scholar
- R Core Team. 2016. A language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved October 30, 2017 from https://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
- Jörg Vollmer, Robert Mencl, and Heinrich Müeller. 1999. Improved Laplacian smoothing of noisy surface meshes. Computer Graphics Forum 18, 3 (1999), 131--138.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Andrew Willis and David B. Cooper. 2008. From ruins to relics: Computational reconstruction of ancient artifacts. IEE Signal Processing Magazine 25 (2008), 65--83.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Andrew Willis, Xavier Orriols, Senem Velipasalar, Xavier Binefa, and David B. Cooper. 2000. Extracting Axially Symmetric Geometry from Limited 3D Range Data. Technical Report. Brown University, Brown.Google Scholar
- Ben Yacoub and Christian Menard. 1997. Robust axis determination for rotational symmetric objects out of range data. In Proceedings of the 21st AAPR Workshop. 197--202.Google Scholar
- Victor J. Yohai. 1987. High breakdown-point and high efficiency robust estimates for regression. The Annals of Statistics 15, 2 (1987), 642--656.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kang Zhang, Wuyi Yu, Mary Manhein, Warren Waggenspack, and Xin Li. 2015. 3D fragment reassembly using integrated template guidance and fracture-region matching. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision. 2138--2146. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Computer-Assisted Orientation and Drawing of Archaeological Pottery
Recommendations
Computer-Assisted Archaeological Line Drawing
Traditional 2D line-drawing methods are mostly manual and hence quite laborious. A new 3D-model-assisted approach makes archaeological reports more accurate, efficient, and informative. The Web extra is a video that shows a new computer-assisted ...
3D multi-scale scanning of the archaeological cave "les Fraux" in (France)
EuroMed'12: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Progress in Cultural Heritage PreservationThe archaeological cave « Les Fraux » (Saint-Martin-de-Fressengeas, Dordogne) forms a great network of galleries, characterized by the exceptional richness of its archaeological Bronze Age remains such as domestic fireplaces, ceramic and metal deposits, ...
Modelling Archaeological Buildings Using CIDOC-CRM and Its Extensions: The Case of Fuwairit, Qatar
Towards Open and Trustworthy Digital SocietiesAbstractThis paper explores the use of CIDOC CRM and its extensions (CRMba, CRMarchaeo) to represent archaeological buildings that have been studied and interpreted by archaeologists during their work in the field. These archaeological observations and ...
Comments