Microcomputed tomography for discriminating between different forming techniques in ancient pottery: New segmentation method and pore distribution recognition

Coli, Vanna Lisa; Gomart, Louise; Pisani, Didier F.; Cohen, Serge; Blanc‐Féraud, Laure; Leblond, Juliette; Binder, Didier

doi:10.1111/arcm.12693

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…CT scans were made on four adhesive lumps and one shaped lump used to replace a vessel foot (as shown in Fig 2F ) to identify any potential inclusions within the organic materials. The scans were recorded using a SkyScan-1178 X-ray μ -CT system (Bruker) with a resolution of 81 μ m as previously described [ 68 ]. Reconstructions were produced with the NRecon 1.6.6.0 software (Bruker), using the same minimum and maximum coefficient values (0–0.055) to compare inclusion densities.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in birch tar composition are explained by adhesive function in the central European Iron Age

Koch,

Saurel,

Bocquillon

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Birch bark tar is the most widely documented adhesive in prehistoric Europe. More recent periods attest to a diversification in terms of the materials used as adhesives and their application. Some studies have shown that conifer resins and beeswax were added to produce compound adhesives. For the Iron Age, no comparative large-scale studies have been conducted to provide a wider perspective on adhesive technologies. To address this issue, we identify adhesive substances from the Iron Age in north-eastern France. We applied organic residue analysis to 65 samples from 16 archaeological sites. This included residues adhering to ceramics, from vessel surface coatings, repaired ceramics, vessel contents, and adhesive lumps. Our findings show that, even during the Iron Age in north-eastern France, birch bark tar is one of the best-preserved adhesive substances, used for at least 400 years. To a lesser extent, Pinaceae resin and beeswax were also identified. Through statistical analyses, we show that molecular composition differs in samples, correlating with adhesive function. This has implications for our understanding of birch bark tar production, processing and mode of use during the Iron Age in France and beyond.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in birch tar composition are explained by adhesive function in the central European Iron Age

Koch,

Saurel,

Bocquillon

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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“…A promising method of using 3D information from µ-CT imaging is presented in a recent paper (Coli et al 2022), which introduces a classical image processing tool (the Hough transform) for the detection of expected geometrical patterns in the porous structure of ceramic sherds. This approach was shown to be able to differentiate between coil-building and the recently proposed, unusual 'Spiralled Patchwork Technology' technique (Gomart et al 2017) using quantitative metrics, and accordingly represents an important step forward.…”

Section: X-ray and Neutron Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative 3D orientation analysis of particles and voids to differentiate hand-built pottery forming techniques using X-ray microtomography and neutron tomography

Gait

Bajnok

Szilágyi

et al. 2022

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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This article describes the quantitative analysis of the 3D orientation of objects (i.e. particles and voids) within pottery fabrics to differentiate two categories of pottery hand-building primary forming techniques, specifically percussion-building and coil-building, comparing the use of two independent non-destructive imaging modalities, X-ray microtomography (µ-CT) and neutron tomography (NT). For this purpose, series of experimental organic-tempered vessels and coil sections were analysed. For both imaging modalities, two separate systems were employed for quantitatively describing both the orientation of individual objects, as well as the collective preferential alignment of objects within samples, utilising respectively polar and azimuth angles within a spherical coordinate system, and projected sizes within a positive Cartesian coordinate system. While the former provided full descriptions of the orientations of objects within 3D space, the latter, through a ratio dubbed here the ‘Orientation Index’ (OI), gave a simple numerical value with which the investigated samples were differentiated according to forming technique. Both imaging modalities were able to differentiate between coil-built and percussion-built vessels with a high degree of confidence, with the strength of these findings additionally demonstrated through extensive statistical modelling using Monte Carlo simulations. Despite differences in resolution and differences in the attenuation of X-rays and neutrons, µ-CT and NT were shown to provide comparable results. The findings presented here broadly agree with earlier studies; however, the quantitative and three-dimensional nature of the results enables more subtle features to be identified, while additionally, in principle, the non-destructive nature of both imaging techniques facilitates such structural analysis without recourse to invasive sampling.

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Applications of Microct Imaging to Archaeobotanical Research

Barron

2023

J Archaeol Method Theory

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The potential applications of microCT scanning in the field of archaeobotany are only just beginning to be explored. The imaging technique can extract new archaeobotanical information from existing archaeobotanical collections as well as create new archaeobotanical assemblages within ancient ceramics and other artefact types. The technique could aid in answering archaeobotanical questions about the early histories of some of the world’s most important food crops from geographical regions with amongst the poorest rates of archaeobotanical preservation and where ancient plant exploitation remains poorly understood. This paper reviews current uses of microCT imaging in the investigation of archaeobotanical questions, as well as in cognate fields of geosciences, geoarchaeology, botany and palaeobotany. The technique has to date been used in a small number of novel methodological studies to extract internal anatomical morphologies and three-dimensional quantitative data from a range of food crops, which includes sexually-propagated cereals and legumes, and asexually-propagated underground storage organs (USOs). The large three-dimensional, digital datasets produced by microCT scanning have been shown to aid in taxonomic identification of archaeobotanical specimens, as well as robustly assess domestication status. In the future, as scanning technology, computer processing power and data storage capacities continue to improve, the possible applications of microCT scanning to archaeobotanical studies will only increase with the development of machine and deep learning networks enabling the automation of analyses of large archaeobotanical assemblages.

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Microcomputed tomography for discriminating between different forming techniques in ancient pottery: New segmentation method and pore distribution recognition

Cited by 4 publications

References 23 publications

Differences in birch tar composition are explained by adhesive function in the central European Iron Age

Differences in birch tar composition are explained by adhesive function in the central European Iron Age

Quantitative 3D orientation analysis of particles and voids to differentiate hand-built pottery forming techniques using X-ray microtomography and neutron tomography

Applications of Microct Imaging to Archaeobotanical Research

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