3D MODELING OF TWO LOUTERIA FRAGMENTS BY IMAGE-BASED APPROACH

The paper presents a digital approach to the reconstruction and analysis of two small-sized fragments of louteria, a kind of large terracotta vase, found during an archaeological survey in the south of Sicily (Italy), in the area of Cignana near the Greek colony of Akragas (nowadays Agrigento). The fragments of louteria have been studied by an image-based approach in order to achieve high accurate and very detailed 3D models. The 3D models have been used to carry out interpretive and geometric analysis from an archaeological point of view. Using different digital tools, it was possible to highlight some fine details of the louteria decorations and to better understand the characteristics of the two fragments. The 3D models provide also the possibility to study and to document these archaeological finds in a digital environment

Virtual 3D Reconstruction of Archaeological Pottery Using Coarse Registration

The 3D reconstruction of objects has not only improved visualisation of digitised objects, it has helped researchers to actively carry out archaeological pottery. Reconstructing pottery is significant in archaeology but is challenging task among practitioners. For one, excavated potteries are hardly complete to provide exhaustive and useful information, hence archaeologists attempt to reconstruct them with available tools and methods. It is also challenging to apply existing reconstruction approaches in archaeological documentation. This limitation makes it difficult to carry out studies within a reasonable time. Hence, interest has shifted to developing new ways of reconstructing archaeological artefacts with new techniques and algorithms. Therefore, this study focuses on providing interventions that will ease the challenges encountered in reconstructing archaeological pottery. It applies a data acquisition approach that uses a 3D laser scanner to acquire point cloud data that clearly show the geometric and radiometric properties of the object’s surface. The acquired data is processed to remove noise and outliers before undergoing a coarse-to-fine registration strategy which involves detecting and extracting keypoints from the point clouds and estimating descriptions with them. Additionally, correspondences are estimated between point pairs, leading to a pairwise and global registration of the acquired point clouds. The peculiarity of the approach of this thesis is in its flexibility due to the peculiar nature of the data acquired. This improves the efficiency, robustness and accuracy of the approach. The approach and findings show that the use of real 3D dataset can attain good results when used with right tools. High resolution lenses and accurate calibration help to give accurate results. While the registration accuracy attained in the study lies between 0.08 and 0.14 mean squared error for the data used, further studies will validate this result. The results obtained are nonetheless useful for further studies in 3D pottery reassembly

The Early Neolithic 'Broken World': The role of pottery breakage in south-eastern and central Europe

One of the most materially evident yet socially obscured aspects of modern consumer society has been the increasing accumulation of broken objects considered as ‘waste’ or ‘rubbish’. During the Neolithic period, central and south-eastern Europe were also to witness an unprecedented explosion of material remains, mostly pottery fragments, that would affect the social lives of local inhabitants, referred to as the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) and Starčevo-Körös-Criş (SKC) groups respectively. However, because of our modern tendency to write (pre)history in stages of technological development, the Neolithic is conventionally characterized as the moment where humans became masters over nature. Thus, it is emphasised that sedentism, agricultural production, and economic innovations like pottery were introduced. In contrast, the redefinition of the Neolithic as a 'thing-heavy world' (Robb 2013) allows envisioning the Neolithic as a world charged with broken objects. As such, this period can inform us of a unique form of knowledge on what people do when objects break. Determining how they were broken and deposited represent a fundamental way to understand this social knowledge. Through the study of the breakage and alteration of pottery fragments by a combination of wear, morphometric and failure analysis I show how breakage actions and broken objects shaped social practices in SKC sites from the Upper Tisza/Tisa Basin (NW Romania, NE Hungary and SW Ukraine), and LBK sites from the Northern Harz Foreland (northern Germany). Results indicate there was a significant variation in social responses to breakage in both regions resulting from the ubiquitous presence, continued exposure and movement of fragments through daily life, as well as from the paradoxical resilience and extensive cracking behaviour of their organic-tempered ceramics. This knowledge brought by living with broken objects marks a stark contrast to present lifestyles, and it becomes clear then that the modern waste crisis signals an epistemological crisis

The Late Natufian at Raqefet Cave: The 2006 Excavation Season

A long season of excavation took place at Raqefet cave during the summer of 2006. In the first chamber we exposed an area rich with Natufian human burials (Locus 1), a large bedrock basin with a burial and two boulder mortars (Locus 2), an in situ Natufian layer (Locus 3), and two areas with rich cemented sediments (tufa) covering the cave floor (Loci 4, 5). The latter indicate that at the time of occupation the Natufian layers covered the entire floor of the first chamber. During the ensuing millennia, these were washed away and/or removed by later visitors to the cave. We found in the cave and the terrace almost 80 human-made bedrock holes (most of which are commonly but somewhat erroneously termed mortars and cupmarks). Several contained in situ Natufian remains, and at the top of one a human skeleton was unearthed. The variety of the HBHs, in terms of shape and dimensions indicates that they were used in many ways, some of which could not have been for food or mineral processing. The paper provides results of on-going studies regarding the burials, the HBHs, the flint assemblage, the faunal remains, the ground stone industry, the bone tools and the beads. It also presents aspects of geoarchaeology and ground penetrating radar analyses. Some of the detailed plans and sections were prepared by the use of photogrammetry

Neolithic pottery from the Trieste Karst (northeastern Italy): A multi-analytical study

9siA group of Neolithic potsherds from caves of the Trieste Karst (northeastern Italy) belonging to the Vlaška Group has been studied through a multi-analytical approach mainly based on non-destructive X-ray computed microtomography (μCT) and portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF), combined with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical microscopy (OM) to investigate both manufacture technology and provenance of the vases. Most samples, probably produced using a modelling technique, were made using clay-silt size paste containing quartz inclusions, tempered with the addition of abundant calcite and some limestone fragments. Calcite minerals, very common in the karstic environment, were probably obtained by grinding speleothems. This peculiar paste seems to be typical of the Karst area since prehistoric times. One single sample (5880), characterized by an unusual shape recalling those of the Fiorano culture (present in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto), shows a fine-grained fabric with numerous grog fragments, quartz, minor feldspar but without calcite. The 2D and 3D μCT-derived fabric parameters, reflecting the manufacture technology, are also quite different from those of the local vases. These features suggest that sample 5880 was manufactured elsewhere and later reached the Karst, directly or indirectly. The combined use of conventional techniques and non-destructive XRF and μCT, which allows the quantification of clay material, lithic inclusions and porosity, has proved to be an effective approach to investigate both technology and provenance of ceramic materials.partially_openopenBernardini, F.; Vecchiet, A.; De Min, A.; Lenaz, D.; Mendoza Cuevas, A-; Gianoncelli, A.; Dreossi, D.; Tuniz, C.; Montagnari, E.Bernardini, F.; Vecchiet, A.; DE MIN, Angelo; Lenaz, Davide; Mendoza Cuevas, A.; Gianoncelli, A.; Dreossi, Diego; Tuniz, C.; Montagnari, Emanuel