Reconstructing archeological vessels by fusing surface markings and border anchor points on fragments

Abstract

This paper presents a method to assist in the tedious process of reconstructing ceramic vessels from excavated fragments. The method exploits vessel surface marking information (models) supplied by the archaeologists along with anchor points on the fragment borders for reconstruction. Marking models are based on expert historical knowledge of the period, provenance of the artifact, and site location. The models need not to be identical to the original vessel, but must be within a geometric transformation of it in most of its parts. Marking matching is based on discrete weighted moments. We use anchor points on the fragment borders for the fragments with no markings. Corresponding anchors on different fragments are identified using absolute invariants, from which a rigid transformation is computed allowing the fragments to be virtually mended. For axially symmetric objects, a global constraint induced by the surface of revolution is applied to guarantee global mending consistency. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.