Virtual reassembly and completion of a fragmentary drinking vessel

Despoina Tsiafaki; Anestis Koutsoudis; Fotis Arnaoutoglou; Natasa Michailidou

doi:10.4995/var.2016.5910

Authors

Despoina Tsiafaki "Athena": Research & Innovation Center
Anestis Koutsoudis "Athena": Research & Innovation Center
Fotis Arnaoutoglou "Athena": Research & Innovation Center
Natasa Michailidou "Athena": Research & Innovation Center

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2016.5910

Keywords:

pottery, cultural heritage, digital archaeology, 3D documentation, virtual archaeology, 3D reconstruction

Abstract

A key issue in the study of cultural assets is theiroften fragmentary condition. This causes serious problems and questions regarding theirstudy and presentation. Pottery fragments are the most numerous findings in every excavation. Furthermore, pottery plays an essential role for the reconstruction of the past, since it providesinformation for all aspects of life (private, public, religion, death, economy, society, trade,etc.). Therefore,a thorough study and presentation of pottery fragments contribute to a better knowledge of the past.The focus of this work is the visualisation of an ancient Greek drinking vase, a kantharos, which was unearthed during the excavations at the settlement of Karabournaki (ancient Therme) in the area of Thessaloniki (Greece). It dates to the Archaic period (7th-6thc. B.C.) and it was found in fragments among the settlement's architectural remains. The vase is of great archaeological significance due to its peculiarities in terms of shape, decoration and function. Therefore,its digital completion and 3D reconstruction willcontribute to its betterstudy and scholarly publication along with a general contribution to the field of pottery studies.We discuss on the 3D digitisation of the kantharosfragments that werebased onStructure from Motion/Multiple View Stereovision (SfM/MVS) and a custom automated data collection system. A detailed description of the digitisation pipeline is given along with details related to the quality of the 3D digital replicas of the sherds. Furthermore, we presentour manual virtual reassembly and reconstruction pipelineof the kantharosby describing the challenges, issues and ambiguities discovered while analysing the geometrical features of each sherd. A number of photorealistic reconstruction visualisations of the artefact are presented in order to question the applicability of the solution for the actual reconstruction

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