A Virtual Stonehenge Landscape on Vimeo

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1. A Virtual Stonehenge Landscape

by Wessex Archaeology

2 years ago

This short film shows the landscape around Stonehenge as recorded by LIDAR survey (airborne 3D scanning). Millions of measurements were taken across the landscape, and here they have been turned into a 'solid' computer model to show how well the archaeology is recorded by this method.

Prehistoric burial mounds (barrows), the great Cursus (a 2km Neolithic monument), the Bronze Age Avenue which links Stonehenge to the River Avon, and other henges such as Woodhenge and Durrington Walls are all clearly visible.

It is possibly the first time that this data has been shown in this way, at 1:1 with no reduction of data quality to produce a perspective animation.

To find out more technical information about the survey, visit the Stonehenge LIDAR section of the English Heritage website: english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.00100200300400a001001

More info at the Wessex Archaeology Computing blog: computing.wessexarch.co.uk/2007/11/15/the-stonehenge-landscape-in-3d/

Credits

4 Likes

Walter Rafelsberger
11 months ago
Evaristo Gestoso
1 year ago
Sue White
1 year ago
Brad Birchett
1 year ago

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Win Scutt 2 years ago

Absolutely brilliant. A fantastic teaching aid.
Win
nigel walsh 2 years ago

I think the stonehenge / durrington walls LIDAR video is excellent but perhaps for ignoramus's such as me you could put a short technical explanation on the same page, e.g. what does the acroynm LIDAR stand for and what causes the spikes that appear in various places.

The Durrington Walls ring really shows up well. It is not at all apparent when passing the spot through at ground level unless of course you are an expert.
Thanks
Nigel
Tom Goskar 2 years ago

LIDAR stands for LIght Detection And Ranging. There's a good explanation on Wikipedia, which isn't far off the mark: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR

The spikes often indicate the presence of trees or tall vegetation. In this 'unfiltered' dataset, when the laser hits the canopy some readings are returned from the ground, some from branches and leaves. You end up with hundreds of millions of points in 3D space (known as a "point cloud").

When turned into a 'solid' computer model as you see here, areas where points in the air (the top of a tree) are very close to points on the ground (the laser scattering through branches and hitting the ground, for example) you get a zig-zag effect, causing the spikes.

I hope that explains at least some of your questions!
Karol K 24 days ago

No offence Tom, but I'd like to say that sentence which appears in the video saying: "...visible in incredible detail..." sound for myself quite riddiculous. The Stonehenge is 'only' about 20-30 spikes which doesn't say much if you don't know what's that and do not recognise the shape. I work for LiDAR mapping company based in UK, and recently had a chance to deal with a 200kHz Airborne LiDAR data which has got about 3-10 cm elevation accuracy and 5cm plane, giving enormous point cloud of more than 200 points per sqm. That's brilliant, but the one in the video is just poor.
Apart from that, I'd like to say that your video impressed me a lot, with rendering of light and fly-through quality. If I could use the kind of software you did, I'd take you of your feet probably :)