A creative partnership between virtual reality developers, soundscape specialists, the National Trust, and Bournemouth University worked to develop an immersive 3D simulation of how the ancient Avebury heritage site may have looked and sounded circa 2,300 BCE. The simulation was constructed using lidar data and archaeological information to build the virtual landscape. Sound effects and Neolithic artifacts were also created. The simulation was then made publicly available at Avebury from June to September 2018, with over 700 people experiencing it. Surveys of 388 participants found that responses to the experience did not significantly differ based on demographics like gender or virtual reality experience.

1. A Creative Partnership to Develop Immersive Simulations of Ancient Heritage Sites
The Partnership
The partners in this project are virtual reality
developers Daden Limited, soundscape specialists
Satsymph, the National Trust, who own and
manage Avebury, and Bournemouth University.
The Project
Avebury henge and stone circle is a late Neolithic monument in
North Wiltshire, estimated to have been built between 2,800 to
2,000 BCE. It is the largest known stone circle in the world and, at
1 kilometre in circumference, it is one of the largest henge (inner
ditch and outer bank) monuments in the UK. Today most of the
stones have gone, the banks have slipped and eroded, the ditches
have filled in and a small village lies in the middle of the henge, so
that the original size and complexity of the monument is now
difficult for visitors to appreciate.
This project simulated how Avebury might have looked and sounded circa 2,300 BCE in an immersive,
3D virtual reality environment. The simulation was then openly available for public engagement and
evaluation at Avebury between June to September 2018.
Virtual Avebury Under Construction
Daden create a greyscale map
from Environment Agency
Lidar data, and import into
their Unity 3D FieldscapesTM
platform…
… to form the first terrain model. The
ditches and banks are then terraformed to
the heights and depths interpreted from
archaeological data provided by BU and
NT…
…to simulate the henge as it may have
appeared circa 2,300 BCE.
Satsymph start to build the soundscape structure…
…and we all work together in the virtual
environment, developing the visual and audible
character of Virtual Avebury.
We record and mix sound effects such as flint
knapping…
We create Neolithic artefacts such as
grooved ware pottery sherds and red
deer antler picks…
…and human voices
speaking, laughing and
calling.
… and all the parts are finally synthesised to
create Virtual Avebury.

2. Who were our participants?
A Creative Partnership to Develop Immersive Simulations of Ancient Heritage Sites
How did they feel about their experience of Virtual Avebury?
Did they feel a sense of place in Virtual Avebury? Were any differences in experience associated with demographic data?
What did they say?
“However fascinating, the sense of the stones themselves is
more powerful. This really filled in the gaps though and helped
understand what was missing. The two together (physical and
virtual) are a brilliant combination”
“Nervous when I went under ground or near the edge of the
ditch...in a good way!”
“Awed and exhilarated would be good words to add”
“While not invoking additional curiosity, the VR certainly enhanced the visit and my appreciation and understanding
of the site”
“I would enjoy VR experiences as I can like the perspectives it gives me, but not sure I would select venues just
because it’s available”
What did they say?
“It was amazingly realistic in terms of
being able to move around, but as
there were no people (apart from the
static couple) or animals, and nothing
moving, it wasn't completely
believable”
“Wow, I’d like to have gone further
and interacted with village people and
may be cook or do something more
constructive”
“I thought the effects were very good,
graphics were good and sounds
helped to enhance the experience” “It felt very different to the Avebury I
know, particularly in separation from the
surrounding landscape and the
monuments. But that enabled a different
sense of the place to be appreciated”
“I felt completely immersed in the
landscape. It was really interesting to
see the difference between the real
stones outside and the simulation. The
difference between the sizes of the
banks and ditches was particularly
striking!”
Virtual Avebury was available for
public engagement on 45 days from
June – September 2018, in the Barn
Gallery of the Alexander Keiller
Museum at Avebury. More than 700
people tried the experience, and we
collected analysable data from a
sample of 388 of those participants.
They came from 18 different
countries, 280 from the UK and the
remaining 108 from the countries
shown on the map to the left.
The age range in our sample was 16-
85. Although many children
experienced Virtual Avebury, our
research was concerned with users
over 16 years old, for ethical and
practical reasons.
Question p
Immersive tendency 0.0008
Sounds made me think about Neolithic people 0.01
Find my way around 0.04
Bring history to life 0.05
Believable as a place 0.22
Enjoyable 0.25
VR good in museums 0.27
Sense of place 0.31
Find out more 0.38
Closer to people 0.45
More likely to visit heritage site with VR 0.66
Game playing 0.71
Frequency of IT use 0.93
Question ρ for male ρ for female
Sounds made me think about Neolithic people 0.14 (P 0.05) 00.06 (P 0.36)
Find my way around 0.176 (P 0.02) 0.03 (P 0.66)
Bring history to life 0.05 (P 0.5) 0.14 (P 0.05)
Believable as a place 0.05 (P 0.53) 0.15 (0.03)
Enjoyable 0.116 (P 0.11) 0.23 (P 0.0009)
VR good in museums 0.13 (P 0.07) 0.1 (P 0.15)
Sense of actual landscape 0.038 (P 0.61) 0.12 (P 0.09)
Find out more 0.23 (P 0.0014) 0.067 (P 0.33)
Closer to people 0.105 (P 0.16) -0.04 (P 0.53)
More likely to visit heritage site with VR 0.10 (P 0.16) 0.12 (P 0.08)
Game playing 0.038 (P 0.6) -0.028 (P 0.69)
Question ρ
Sounds made me think about Neolithic people 0.025 (P 0.62)
Find my way around 0.019 (P 0.7)
Bring history to life 0.11 (P 0.03)
Believable as a place 0.058 (P 0.26)
Enjoyable -0.006 (P 0.91)
VR good in museums 0.049 (P 0.33)
Sense of actual landscape 0.07 (P 0.16)
Find out more 0.01 (P 0.85)
Closer to people -0.021 (P 0.68)
More likely to visit heritage site with VR -0.078 (P 0.12)
Table 1: Two-sample (male/female) Mann-Witney significance
test table (significant where p ≤ 0.5)
Table 2: Spearman rank correlations with immersive tendency for males and females
Table 3: Spearman rank correlations against frequency of IT
use for both sexes combined
Broadly, no. We have carried out a number of statistical tests on the
data to see if demographic data such as gender, familiarity with IT use
or immersive tendency of individuals was associated with responses to
experiences in Virtual Avebury. Table 1 shows that there was a very
significant difference between male and female responses to the
immersive tendency question, but little other significant difference.
Table 2 shows that there is little correlation between immersive
tendency and Virtual Avebury experiences, and Table 3 shows very little
correlation with familiarity with IT use. So, positive responses to Virtual
Avebury occurred across a wide range of our participants.
Over 100,000 views of the NT
Avebury Facebook page post
Virtual Avebury at AveburyThe Barn Gallery at Avebury
The age/gender
distribution of our
participants
Where our participants came from Percentages of age groups in UK population
compared to Virtual Avebury participants