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 7 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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Heritage research at the PUMA beamline

Schöder,

Müller,

Tranchant

et al. 2024

Appl. Phys. A

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X-ray scattering (SAXS), as well as elemental speciation by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), were soon identified as significant contributions to understand the composition of archaeological and artistic materials. Paleontological work subsequently benefited from imaging capabilities both in 3D (through micro-computed tomography (µCT))[3], later from scanning XRF, XAS and XRD [4-10] and even from X-ray Raman scattering (XRS) spectroscopy and imaging [11,12]. To facilitate the access for these new user groups, it was decided to build both a beamline specialized for the needs of the community at the French national synchrotron light source SOLEIL, located on the Paris-Saclay campus south-west of Paris, and a support research platform, IPANEMA [13]. The goal was to offer a beamline with synchrotron techniques often used by the community, while being complementary to the portfolio of techniques already available at SOLEIL. The beamline and accompanying procedures were optimized to take into account several specific requirements of heritage materials, particularly their physico-chemical heterogeneity, their fragility, and the need to search for local information in large samples [14]. The name "PUMA" was chosen for the new beamline as an abbreviation for "Photons utilisés pour les Matériaux Anciens" ("Photons used for Ancient Materials"

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

Cited by 7 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

Heritage research at the PUMA beamline

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