# Solving Archaeological Puzzles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.10553 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.10553/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 Dec 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Re-assembling the past: The RePAIR dataset and benchmark for real world 2D and 3D puzzle solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.24010/) (2024)
- [A Survey on Computational Solutions for Reconstructing Complete Objects by Reassembling Their Fractured Parts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14770/) (2024)
- [Pairwise Alignment & Compatibility for Arbitrarily Irregular Image Fragments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.09767/) (2025)
- [ERL-MPP: Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning with Multi-head Puzzle Perception for Solving Large-scale Jigsaw Puzzles of Eroded Gaps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09608/) (2025)
- [VLHSA: Vision-Language Hierarchical Semantic Alignment for Jigsaw Puzzle Solving with Eroded Gaps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25202/) (2025)
- [PuzLM: Solving Jigsaw Puzzles with Sequence-to-Sequence Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06315/) (2025)
- [Learning to Assemble Geometric Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11809/) (2022)
- [The Missing GAP: From Solving Square Jigsaw Puzzles to Handling Real World Archaeological Fragments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12077/) (2026)
- [Relaxation Labeling Meets GANs: Solving Jigsaw Puzzles with Missing Borders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14428/) (2022)
- [Nash Meets Wertheimer: Using Good Continuation in Jigsaw Puzzles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16857/) (2024)
- [ReassembleNet: Learnable Keypoints and Diffusion for 2D Fresco Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21117/) (2025)
- [Solving Convex Partition Visual Jigsaw Puzzles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.04450/) (2025)
- [Solving Jigsaw Puzzles in the Wild: Human-Guided Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage Fragments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06389/) (2026)
- [ArcAid: Analysis of Archaeological Artifacts using Drawings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09480/) (2022)
- [JigSync: Gauge-Resolved Synchronization for Jigsaw Reassembly under Unknown Piece Orientation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18379/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Puzzle solving is a difficult problem in its own right, even when the pieces are all square and build up a natural image. But what if these ideal conditions do not hold? One such application domain is archaeology, where restoring an artifact from its fragments is highly important. From the point of view of computer vision, archaeological puzzle solving is very challenging, due to three additional difficulties: the fragments are of general shape; they are abraded, especially at the boundaries (where the strongest cues for matching should exist); and the domain of valid transformations between the pieces is continuous. The key contribution of this paper is a fully-automatic and general algorithm that addresses puzzle solving in this intriguing domain. We show that our state-of-the-art approach manages to correctly reassemble dozens of broken artifacts and frescoes.