Virtual reassembly and completion of a fragmentary drinking vessel = El reensamblaje y la reposición virtual de un recipiente de beber fragmentado

• Published in: Virtual archaeology review 2016-11, Vol.7 (15), p.67-76
• Main Authors: Tsiafaki, Despoina, Koutsoudis, Anestis, Arnaoutoglou, Fotis, Michailidou, Natasa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1989-9947; 1989-9947

ONLINE ONLY. "A key issue in the study of cultural assets is their often fragmentary condition. This causes serious problems and questions regarding their study 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 provides information 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-6th c. 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 will contribute to its better study and scholarly publication along with a general contribution to the field of pottery studies. We discuss on the 3D digitisation of the kantharos fragments that were based on Structure 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 present our manual virtual reassembly and reconstruction pipeline of the kantharos by 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." = "Una cuestión clave en el estudio de los bienes culturales es su condición a menudo fragmentaria. Esta causa problemas y serias dudas en cuanto a su estudio y presentación. Los fragmentos de cerámica son los hallazgos más frecuentes en una excavación. Además, la cerámica juega un papel esencial para la reconstrucción del pasado, ya que proporciona información acerca de todos los aspectos de la vida (privada, pública, la religión, la muerte, la economía, la sociedad, el comercio, etc.). Por lo tanto, un estudio a fondo y la presentación de