# Provenance Analysis of Archaeological Artifacts via Multimodal RAG Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20769 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20769/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in VLM benchmarks and visual reasoning, one of 16 directions in Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models.
- Builds on 3 of its 11 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Sep 2025.

## Placed in

- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [VLM benchmarks and visual reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/vlm-benchmarks-and-visual-reasoning/)
- Retrieval-augmented generation / [Multimodal RAG](https://mlsanity.com/rag/multimodal-rag/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [GPT-4o System Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21276/) (2024)
- [From Single to Multi: How LLMs Hallucinate in Multi-Document Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13961/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this work, we present a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)-based system for provenance analysis of archaeological artifacts, designed to support expert reasoning by integrating multimodal retrieval and large vision-language models (VLMs). The system constructs a dual-modal knowledge base from reference texts and images, enabling raw visual, edge-enhanced, and semantic retrieval to identify stylistically similar objects. Retrieved candidates are synthesized by the VLM to generate structured inferences, including chronological, geographical, and cultural attributions, alongside interpretive justifications. We evaluate the system on a set of Eastern Eurasian Bronze Age artifacts from the British Museum. Expert evaluation demonstrates that the system produces meaningful and interpretable outputs, offering scholars concrete starting points for analysis and significantly alleviating the cognitive burden of navigating vast comparative corpora.