Differentiation of ceramic chemical element composition and vessel morphology at a pottery production center in Roman Galilee

Computerized morphological classification of ceramics

“…In the next section we discuss the essential question in any classification algorithm, namely e the definition of "similarity" or "distance" between profiles. Here we follow our previous publications (Adan-Bayewitz et al, 2009;Gilboa et al, 2004;Karasik et al, 2005;Saragusti et al, 2005). We briefly review it here so as to make this paper self contained, and to introduce the main concepts and notations.…”

“…There are several ways to describe the profile as a function of s. As in previous publications (Adan-Bayewitz et al, 2009;Saragusti et al, 2005), we use three different mathematical representations to describe the morphology of the curves: the radius RðsÞ, the tangent qðsÞ and the curvature kðsÞ. Mathematically speaking, each of the three representations of the profile stores the entire morphological information of the curve (but for shifts).…”

“…Mathematically speaking, each of the three representations of the profile stores the entire morphological information of the curve (but for shifts). They are in one to one correspondence, and each can be fully reconstructed from the other without any loss of information (Adan-Bayewitz et al, 2009;Saragusti et al, 2005). They differ, however, in the sort of features to which they are most sensitive.…”

“…Each of the definitions of a distance expresses different aspect of similarity between the two vessels and can be used independently in morphological studies (Adan-Bayewitz et al, 2009;Gilboa et al, 2004;Karasik et al, 2005). However, in order to establish the analysis on more than one representative function without bias (considering that the three functions have different ranges and units), a normalization factor has to be introduced so that the different distances are considered on the same footing.…”

The Pottery Informatics Query Database: A New Method for Mathematic and Quantitative Analyses of Large Regional Ceramic Datasets

“…It was tested in several cases and proved to be archaeologically meaningful and relevant (Gilboa et al 2004;Karasik et al 2005;Smilansky 2008, 2011;Adan-Bayewitz et al 2009;Karasik 2010). The classification method was published recently and its full description and formulas and details can be found in this publication (Karasik and Smilansky 2011).…”