A survey of classification and reconstruction methods for the 2D archaeological objects

Archaeology is the scientific study of the remnants of human civilization, and involves exploring the lives of ancient peoples by examining their waste. Numerous researchers proposed numerous methods and ideas for the (semi or automated) reconstruction of a (usually large) number of broken irregular fragments. Hence, this paper aims to provide an in-depth review of the most notable publications on computer applications related to the area of classification and reconstruction of archaeological pottery fragments using two-dimensional images during the period between the early 1970s and 2014. The considered publications were classified on the basis of the study type, which is divided into two categories: studies that focus on classification of ancient fragments into groups, and those that focus on the reconstruction of archaeological fragments. This paper reviews and analyzes the most relevant works published according to the extracted features, classification processes involved, matching techniques that have been implemented for the restoration of pottery objects to their original form, as well as the yielded results.