Instructions for users of the module 'Capacity'

Avshalom Karasik, Noam Peled and Uzy Smilansky

Department of Physics of Complex Systems
The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
The module 'Capacity' is intended for archaeologists who wish to compute the
capacity (volume) of vessels with complete profile. The vessels are assumed to be
axially symmetric so that a single profile (section) provides the entire information
needed to compute the volume. The computation is based on profiles drawn according
to the standard conventions in Archaeological reports (see figure 1).

Figure 1: A typical drawing of an axially symmetric bowl.
For each vessel, the program computes three values:
1. The net capacity (to the rim).
2. Volume of the body material.
3. Effective volume - up to the neck (when the neck exists).
Their exact definitions will be provided in the sequel.
To use the Capacity module you have to scan your drawings, and reduce them to the
Capacity input format as explained in sections B-E. Section G gives a concise list of
the steps which have to be followed. The algorithm used for the computations as well
as a discussion of the main sources of possible inaccuracies and uncertainties are
given in section F. The method was first described in:
Karasik, A. and U. Smilansky (2006). Computation of the Capacity of Pottery
Vessels Based on Drawn Profiles. In: Mazar, A. (ed.), Excavations at Tel Beth Shean
1989 -1996, vol. I. Appendix 1A to Chapter 12. (J erusalem).
Important note: We released this module after having checked it to our satisfaction.
We cannot exclude, however, the possibility that some errors remain. In case you
encountered an error, please inform us by sending a detailed description of the
problem. We shall be obliged for any feedback, and in particular suggestions,
comments, and, if possible, a short description of your particular project.
Contact e-address: avshalom.karasik@weizmann.ac.il .
A. Download and install the module capacity
A.1 Download the folder 'capacity.zip' into your computer and extract the files into
one folder. You should have the files:
1) volumes.exe 2) volumes.ctf 3) scale.txt
4) sample1.jpg 5) sample2.jpg
A.2 If you have MATLAB 7.1 (or a more advanced issue) on your computer, the
installation is finished. Go to A.4.
A.3 If you do not have MATLAB 7.1 then you should download and install also the
file 'MCRInstaller.exe'. However, we are not legally aloud to distribute this file on
the web, only directly to the users. Please inform us that you wish to use the module
'capacity' and we shall send you a username and password. The 'MCRInstaller.exe'
will install some necessary files that are used by the main program.
A.4 The program is now ready to run.
If this is the first time you run this module, double click on the icon 'volumes.exe'.
This is a sample run, in which the program will provide the capacities of the vessels
whose images are in the files 'sample1.jpg' and 'sample2.jpg'. Obtaining the correct
results (see the appendix to the present document) indicates that you are ready to use
capacity on your vessels. For this purpose you have to replace the files sample1.jpg
and sample2.jpg with 'jpg' files in which the drawings of your vessels are prepared as
per the instructions in the following sections. Once you are ready, double click
'volumes.exe' and the program will evaluate your files.

Make sure that your images are well prepared and that the scale is accurate (see
next sections).
B. Modify the drawings to the capacity input format.
Before proceeding any further, please study figure 2 which describes the stages that
lead from the original drawing (1) to the 'capacity' input format (4). The scanned file
can be modified by Photoshop or any similar software.

1. Scan the original drawing
2. Delete irrelevant data
4. Crop the image to the relevant size
and delete the vertical line at the bottom
3. Transfer the profile to one pixel width and
keep the highest pixel of the rotation axis

Figure 2: The stages from the original drawing to the 'Capacity' format.

First stage ((1) (2)):
Change your image into black and white mode and delete all the details which do not
pertain to the section and the symmetry axis (vertical line). In some drawings, the
horizontal lines (rim line, carination lines, etc.) touch the sections. When deleting
them, take care to leave the boundary of the section as smooth as possible.
Second stage ((2) (3)):
a. Keep only the upper pixel of the symmetry (vertical) line and delete the rest.
b. Extract the boundary line of the section. The thickness of the boundary line
should be 1 pixel only. If you use 'Photoshop' the extraction of the boundary can
be done by:
b.1 Choose the black profile using the 'magic wand' tool, first make sure that you
have marked the option 'contiguous' at the top.
b.2 Go to 'Select' menu >'modify' >'contract' >1 pixels, and then press
'delete'.
Third stage ((3) (4)):
a. Remove any remaining parts of the drawing (such as handles or spouts).
b. Delete the vertical line that remained at the bottom left of the profile.
c. Crop the image leaving the relevant part in it.
d. Store the resulting file as a 'jpg' file in the Capacity folder. The number of
input files is unlimited. Refrain from using the same name for different files.
Observe:
- Sometimes, due to improper positioning of the original page on the scanner, the
scanned image is not exactly aligned with respect to the page. The correct alignment
can be restored if the uppermost pixel on the symmetry line is recognized. This is why
stage a. above is essential.
- The contour of the profile should be one pixel thick. Deviations may introduce
errors in the computation or even interrupt the program.


C. Insert the metric length scale
The metric length scale of an image gives the length (in millimeters) that every pixel
represents in the actual vessel. Using this number, Capacity converts the computed
volumes and expresses them in liters (1 liter =10
6
mm
3
). The scale (in units of
mm/pixel) should be written in the file scale.txt in the Capacity input folder. This is
a simple text file in which you should write only the number without the units.

NOTE: The Capacity input folder may consist of several input files as described
above. It is assumed that all of them have the same scale. Thus, for each batch of
scanned drawings which share the same scale, you have to prepare a Capacity input
folder.
Examples:
a. If the original drawings were drawn to scale (1:1 ratio), and you have scanned them
with 600 dpi, then the pixel size is: 04233 . 0
600
4 . 25
= mm. (1 Inch =25.4 mm)
b. If the original drawings were reduced by 2:5 ratio and you have scanned them with
300 dpi, then the pixel size is 2167 . 0
2
5
300
4 . 25
= mm.
c. Another way to calculate the size that one pixel represents in the real vessel, is to
scan the scale of the drawing and to count how many pixels are in the scanned scale.
Notice that you must use the same scanning resolution.
For instance, in figure 2 the scale of 10cm has 473 pixels along its length. Therefore
the scale per pixel is 2114 . 0
473
100
= mm.

D. Running Capacity and the meaning of its output
Before you start, make sure that the correct scale is inserted in the file 'scale.txt', and
that all the images in a single Capacity input folder have the same scale.
Start the program by double click on the icon 'volumes.exe'.
All the 'jpg' files which are in the folder will be analyzed sequentially. The results will
be kept in a new file 'results.htm' and a new folder neck.
The file 'results.htm' consists of a list of three values per vessel (Figure 4).
4. The net capacity.
5. Volume of the body material.
6. Effective volume-up to the neck.
Explanations:
The net capacity is the volume of the inner part of the vessel from top to bottom.
The volume of the body material is the volume of the fabric and it is proportional to
the weight of the vessel. By adding it to the net capacity one gets the exterior volume
that determines the total space which is occupied by the vessel.
The effective volume is useful only for close containers with narrow neck, such as
storage jars, and it gives the volume of the vessel up to a level which the program
determines as the beginning of the neck. The algorithm which defines the neck may
not coincide with your criteria, and deviations may occur especially when the vessels
have complex shapes. You are able to observe the neck level in the output folder of
images - 'neck' -, in which the neck of every vessel is colored with red.
Vessel
name
Net
capacity
volume of the body
material
Effective volume - up to
the neck
a220422 207.8663 90.0566 196.4615
a210133 48.8151 21.5822 46.0427
a22 14.0758 11.6423 12.7878
a220180 77.8421 39.2516 77.6792
a220263 52.7013 19.4783 52.0995
a220329 279.0769 96.3594 247.7048
a220335 33.0918 16.5082 32.4276
Figure 4. An example of an output file.
E. Checklist
1. Download the file capacity.zip' and extract the files into one folder.
2. If you do not have MATLAB 7.1 (or a later issue) on your computer, you
should ask us for the 'MCRInstaller.exe' and install it.
3. Prepare your images so that only the contour of the profile and the highest
pixel of the symmetry axis will remain in each image.
4. Make sure that all the images have the same scale. Compute this scale and
write it down in the file 'scale.txt'.
5. Copy the prepared images into the same folder of the program as jpg files.
6. Run the program 'volumes.exe'
7. The computed volumes appear in the file 'results.htm'
8. Check the definitions of the necks in the folder 'neck'.

F. Details about the algorithm from:
Karasik, A. and U. Smilansky (2006). Computation of the Capacity of Pottery
Vessels Based on Drawn Profiles. In: Mazar, A. (ed.), Excavations at Tel Beth Shean
1989 -1996, vol. I. Appendix 1A to Chapter 12. (J erusalem).

The capacity (volume) of pottery vessels is of great significance for understanding the
possible uses of the vessels and the emergence of standard systems of units, inter alia.
Direct measurement of volume using granular or liquid materials is time-consuming
and can only be applied to whole vessels. However, capacity can also be computed
from the drawings of the pottery profiles, provided the profiles are complete and the
drawings represent vessels with interiors that are surfaces of revolution (see, e.g.,
Louise and Dunbar 1995). The method is based on the observation that the three-
dimensional vessel can be reconstructed from its profile by revolving it around the
axis of rotation. The interior of the profile can be defined as the part of the profile that
starts at the center of the interior bottom (the point marked 0 in Fig. 5) and ends at the
rim top (the point marked t in Fig. 5). The volume enclosed by the interior surface is
the capacity, which can be computed by means of a well-known formula explained
below.
In antiquity, vessels might not have been filled up to the rimsome empty
space was left to avoid spilling (e.g., bottle necks) or for seals or corks. Consequently,
we wished to determine volumes up to a prescribed level of filling. We computed the
effective capacity by defining the level of filling as the starting point of the neck (the
point marked f in Fig. 5). This was determined as the point of maximum negative
curvature in the interior (for the curvature function, see Gilboa et al. 2004; Saragusti
et al. 2005). The exterior volume that determines, for example, the number of vessels
that can be stored in a given spacesuch as a storage room or a ships hullis also
of interest. This can be computed from the exterior part of the profile (see Figure 5).
The difference between the exterior and the interior volumes is the volume of the
fabric itself. This volume is proportional to the weight of the vessel, and may be
pertinent to the study of the technological aspects of ancient ceramics manufacture.
In practice, the drawings that appear in the archaeological report were scanned
with a simple scanner at a resolution of 300 dpi. The smoothed contours of the vessels
were extracted using the procedure described in Karasik 2003, and four volumes were
computed for each vessel: the interior and the exterior volumes up to the rim, the
effective capacity up to the neck, and the volume of the fabric. The procedure is
efficient and reliable, and the only relatively time-consuming stage of the work is the
scanning process.
The main sources of inaccuracy and uncertainty in this method of computing
capacity result from the following two factors:
1. Inaccurate rendering of the vessel profile, especially when it is hand-drawn. This
can be overcome by measuring the profile using a profilograph or a 3-d scanning
camera (Sablatnig and Menard 1996; Leymarie et al. 2001; Razdan et al. 2001).
2. Deformation of the original vessel, which invalidates the assumption that a single
profile represents the entire shape.
Finally, the computer algorithm extracts for each point on the contour its
distance r from the axis of symmetry, its height h measured from the horizontal basis
plain, and the arc length s traversed from the lowest point on the contour of interest
(e.g., 0 for the interior part) to the point of interest. Once the entire contour is
traversed, the height and distance from the axis are determined as functions of the arc
length, and denoted by h(s) and r(s), respectively. If we denote the arc length to the
filling point by f, the volume is expressed as:
ds
ds
dy
s r Volume
f

=
0
2
)] ( [
This slightly more general form of the standard formula (see e.g., Gray 1997)
is used because ceramic profiles are often not simple in the sense that r is not a single
valued function of y.

Axis of rotation
Exterior profile
Neck profile
Interior profile
(effective volume)
f
0
t

Figure 5: Profile of a ceramic vessel showing sections
used in the various volume computations


Bibliography

Gilboa, A., et al. 2004. Towards Computerized Typology and Classification of
Ceramics. Journal of Archaeological Science 31/6: 68194.
Gray, A. 1997. Surfaces of Revolution. Ch. 20 in Modern Differential Geometry of
Curves and Surfaces with Mathematica (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL.
Karasik, A. 2003. Mathematical Methods and Computer Applications in the
Classification and Typology of Pottery. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Hebrew
University of J erusalem (Hebrew).
Leymarie, F., et al. 2001. The SHAPE Lab.New Technology and Software for
Archaeologists. Pp. 7989 in Stancic, Z. and Veljanovski, T. (eds.),
Computing Archaeology for Understanding the Past CAA2000. Computer
Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (BAR Int. Ser. 931).
Oxford..
Louise, M. S. and Dunbar, P.B. 1995. Accurately Estimating Vessel Volume from
Profile Illustrations. American Antiquity 60/2: 31934.
Razdan, A., et al. 2001. Using Geometric Modeling for Archiving and Searching 3D
Archaeological Vessels. Paper presented at the International Conference on
Imaging Science, Systems, and Technology, Las Vegas.
Sablatnig, R. and Menard, C. 1996. Computer-based Acquisition of Archaeological
Finds: The First Step towards Automatic Classification. Paper presented at the
the 3rd International Symposium on Computing and Archaeology, Rome.
Saragusti, I., et al. 2005. Quantitative Analysis of Shape Attributes Based on Contours
and Section Profiles in Archaeological Research. Journal of Archaeological
Science 32/6: 84153.

Appendix
1. The following table describes the expected results for the two sample vessels. If
your test run gives the same results, then the module 'capacity' was well installed and
it is ready to run on your data.
Vessel name Net capacity volume of the body material Effective volume - up to the neck
sample1 1.9177 0.64535 1.7923
sample2 14.455 2.3696 14.4092

2. The next two figures shows the definitions of the necks for the two sample files as
were defined by the program.