Reconstruction of 1650 BC Fragmented Wall Paintings by Exploitation of the Thematic Content

In this paper two approaches of general applicability for placing fragments of important archeological objects in their proper position are presented. Both methods are based on the thematic content of the drawings depicted on fragments of 1650 B.C. wall-paintings, excavated at the Greek island of Thera. The first method employs the statistical nature of the drawn figures’ dimensions and gives an estimate of the probability that two fragments belong to the same decorative element and are properly placed in it. During the second method, the authors first prove that there are certain contour lines of the drawn objects that correspond to specific geometric archetypes. Subsequently, an exhaustive Least Squares novel approach is applied in order to correctly place fragments containing broken contour lines of the same decorative element onto their proper geometric archetype. Both methods have been quite successfully applied to the reconstruction of various fragmented wall-paintings.