Image Analysis in Quantitative Particle Studies of Archaeological Ceramic Thin Sections

Abstract

Abstract Thin-section petrography is a crucial tool for the study of archaeological ceramics, and in recent years, image analysis has emerged as a powerful quantitative enhancement of that tool. Exploratory applications of image analysis to archaeological ceramic thin sections, and related work by sedimentary geologists, have indicated its usefulness to the field. In this paper, we first present the results of experimental work testing the consistency and reproducibility of image analysis. We identify procedures for fast and reliable analysis of thin sections using laboratory-prepared ceramic specimens of simple clay-sand systems. We then show how those procedures can be slightly modified to accommodate more complex archaeological specimens. We conclude with a discussion of the role of image analysis within the overall context of thin-section petrography of ceramic materials, as one among a repertoire of techniques, adding quantitative data and increasing the usefulness of ceramic thin sections for addressing archaeological research questions.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 32 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.