M. Kampel, R. Sablatnig
Inst. for Computer Aided Automation, Pattern Recognition & Image Processing Group, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Every archaeological excavation must deal with a vast number of ceramic fragments. The documentation, administration and scientific processing of these fragments represent a temporal, personnel, and financial problem. Up to now documentation and classification have been done manually which means a lot of routine work for archaeologists and a very inconsistent representation of the real object. First, there may be errors in the measuring process. (Diameter or height may be inaccurate), second, the drawing of the fragment should be in a consistent style, which is not possible since a drawing of an object without interpreting it is very hard to do.
We are developing a documentation system for archaeological fragments based on their profile, which is the cross-section of the fragment in the direction of the rotational axis of symmetry. Hence the position of a fragment (orientation) on a vessel is important. To achieve the profile, a 3d-representation of the object is necessary. The main technical goal of this project is to perform an automated classification and reconstruction of archaeological fragments by using the profile section of the oriented object and additional attributes (type of clay, dimensions, type of vessel and the site) belonging to the fragment. The final aim is to provide a tool that helps archaeologists in their archivation process. This paper presents new achievements on the automated archivation process and 3d-acquisition with respect to archaeological requirements.
Key words: pottery, archivation, reconstruction, classification