Abstract
The recent advances in microscopy and scanning techniques enabled the image analysis of archaeological objects in a high resolution. From the direct measurements in images, shapes and related parameters of the structural elements of interest can be derived. In this study, image analysis in 2D/3D is applied to archaeological ceramics, in order to obtain clues about the ceramic pastes, firing and shaping techniques. Images were acquired by the polarized light microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 3D micro X-ray computed tomography (µ-CT) and segmented using Matlab. 70 ceramic sherds excavated at Ransyrt 1 (Middle-Late Bronze Age) and Kabardinka 2 (late Bronze–early Iron Age), located in in the North Caucasian mountains, Russia, were investigated. The size distribution, circularity and sphericity of sand grains in the ceramics show site specific difference as well as variations within a site. The sphericity, surface area, volume and Euler characteristic of pores show the existence of various pyrometamorphic states between the ceramics and within a ceramic. Using alignments of pores and grains, similar pottery shaping techniques are identified for both sites. These results show that the image analysis of archaeological ceramics can provide detailed information about the prehistoric ceramic production technologies with fast data availability.
Highlights
In the past twenty years, there has been a rapid advance in microscopy, scanning technologies and image processing [1,2]
Images were acquired by the polarized light microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 3D micro X-ray computed tomography (μ-CT) and segmented using Matlab. 70 ceramic sherds excavated at Ransyrt 1 (Middle-Late Bronze Age) and Kabardinka 2, located in in the North Caucasian mountains, Russia, were investigated
Using alignments of pores and grains, similar pottery shaping techniques are identified for both sites. These results show that the image analysis of archaeological ceramics can provide detailed information about the prehistoric ceramic production technologies with fast data availability
Summary
In the past twenty years, there has been a rapid advance in microscopy, scanning technologies and image processing [1,2]. The application of high resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) clarified the internal structure of fossils, meteorite, textural differences in magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and related soils as well as products of sintering procedures [3,4,5,6,7,8]. This technique is supported by the mass data processing accompanied by the progress in the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) and the data transport system. Thanks to the mobility of digital data, researchers can perform the analysis in relatively political and geographical boundary free conditions without the necessity to transport the fragile archaeological objects over long distance and time
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