Virtual Excavation Aims to Unearth Stonehenge Secrets

James Hayes

1. What's claimed to be the world's most extensive 'virtual excavation' has begun at the Stonehenge prehistoric monument in Wiltshire. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is using advanced geophysical imaging technology to survey the 14 sq km site over approximately nine weeks spread over a three-year period.
2. The project will be the first time that Stonehenge has been subjected to such a detailed archaeological survey, with every inch of the targeted terrain scanned to a depth of three metres using high-frequency ground-penetrating radar (GPR) systems from Swedish firm MALA Geoscience. The survey is scheduled around the needs of farmers and small-holders whose lands abut the Stonehenge site.
3. Led by the University of Birmingham's Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, the project brings together a 12-member multi-disciplinary team that includes archaeologists, geophysicists, historians, and computing specialists. As well as the GPR they will use laser-scanning and magnetometer technology to enhance their understanding of the site.
4. 'The Stonehenge landscape is one of the most intensively examined in the world, but despite this much of it remains terra incognita,' says project leader Professor Vince Gaffney. 'We don't even know if we are aware of all the monuments that may exist under the Stonehenge site itself. Even people connected with Stonehenge are surprised that it has not been surveyed in this level of detail before. We can discover the "hidden landscape" in a way that you can't really do through invasive work.'
5. The excavation data will be processed by the University of Birmingham's IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (VISTA), which supports academic research and development for spatial analysis, visualisation, and imaging applications. Using the University's BlueBEAR high-performance computing resource running on Scientific Linux 5.2, the project will eventually produce two- and three-dimensional images of the mapped areas.
6. 'Technology has taken a massive step forward in recent years,' adds Professor Gaffney. 'The data capture side is now on a par, capability-wise, with the data-processing systems. We now have mobile ground-penetrating radar working through close-spaced cluster-form sensors that enable us to digitally chart this famous landscape.'
7. Funding for the project has come from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna and the University of Birmingham, with additional support from English Heritage and the National Trust.

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