Classification of archaeological ceramic fragments using texture and color descriptors

The application of digital technologies to culture history preservation and interpretation is a rapidly growing field that has captured the imagination of many. In this work, we explore the application of image classification systems for use in the reconstruction of archaeologically excavated 18th and 19th-century ceramic fragments. In specific, we investigate the classification of thin-shell ceramics based on color and texture descriptors in order to aid in vessel reconstructions. In addition to using well known SIFT features, we formulate a new feature descriptor based on total variation geometry. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed descriptor accurately represents texture and that, when categorizing fragments, it is best to utilize both the color and texture information available.