'Virtual archaeologist' reconnects fragments of an ancient civilization [ Thera ]

Eurekalert ^ | Friday, August 15, 2008 | Chandra Shekhar

[SunkenCiv]

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Laser Rangefinder: A team of Princeton computer scientists has developed an automated system for reconstructing an excavated fresco, mosaic or similar archaeological object. Collaborating closely with archaeologists in Greece, the team has created a system that employs a combination of powerful computer algorithms and a processing system mirroring the procedures traditionally followed at excavation sites. Here, a fragment is placed on a turntable and a laser rangefinder measures its visible surface from various viewpoints. Credit: Frank Wojciechowski

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Examining Fresco Fragments In Santorini: Tim Weyrich, a postdoctoral teaching fellow in computer science at Princeton, examines fresco fragments in Santorini. Weyrich is the technical lead researcher on the project. Credit: Princeton Graphics Group

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Thera Fresco: This is one of the reassembled wall mosaics from the ancient Greek civilization Thera, which was buried under volcanic ash more than 3,500 years ago. Credit: Princeton Graphics Group

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[SunkenCiv]

Instead of the actual press release per se, I used the captions for the three provided no-restrictions pics.

[SunkenCiv]

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[martin_fierro]

Help.

[Oatka]

Thanks for the link. The video there is pretty interesting, and you can see how this will be a tremendous aid.

I would think it would also work with pottery, even those with no decorations, as anything like this has GOT to be faster than the one-at-a-time manual matching.

I’ve always hoped that the computer types could come up with an “automated” deciphering, even transliterating, of the Sumerian cuneiform tablets by scanning them in and matching them against the known characters.

[SunkenCiv]

1000s of years from now, some archaeologist will conclude that the Rubik’s Cube was used for some kind of ritual purpose related to fertility.

[Grut]

1000s of years from now, some archaeologist will conclude that the Rubik’s Cube was used for some kind of ritual purpose related to fertility.

Only if some paleontologist doesn't conclude it's the fossilized egg of the ooh-ahh bird, first.

[Old Professer]

Worse, they’ll open up a garbage pit behind a KFC and sort through the bones only to construct a creature equipped to fly in all directions at once, possessing four separate alimentary canals, having only one breast structure and six legs.

[ExGeeEye]

...and claim that it evolved...

[curmudgeonII]

Worse, they’ll open up a garbage pit behind a KFC and sort through the bones only to construct a creature equipped to fly in all directions at once, possessing four separate alimentary canals, having only one breast structure and six legs.

I see we're back to Janet Reno again.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL!

And be shocked when they find out how much diners paid for it.

[SunkenCiv]

It’s probably feasible right now, but the body of unread tablets is, uh, I guess still buried and unknown. One idea I had, probably infeasible (the best kind), was using various invisible parts of the spectrum, maybe cat scans, to see if any traces remain of the earlier, erased messages. The reason we have cuneiform archives (such as the one excavated at Mari) is that the town or at least the structure was burned down around them and baked them, preserving the writing. Prior to that, the tablets had been used, “erased”, reused, a number of times.