VERA: A Virtual Environment for Research in Archaeology Mark Baker 1 , Claire Fisher 2 , Emma O'Riordan 1 , Matthew Grove 1 , Michael Fulford 1 , Claire Warwick 2 , Melissa Terras 2 , Amanda Clarke 1 , and Mike Rains 3 1 University of Reading 2 University College London 3 York Archaeological Trust Email: Mark.Baker@Computer.org Abstract The VERA (Virtual Environment for Research in Archaeology) project 1 is based on a research excavation of part of the large Roman town at Silchester, which aims to trace the site's development from its origins before the Roman conquest to its abandonment in the fifth century A.D (Clarke 2007). The VERA project aims to investigate how archaeologists use Information Technology (IT) in the context of a field excavation, and also for post-excavation analysis. VERA is a two-year project funded by the JISC VRE 2 programme that involves researchers from the University of Reading, University College London, and York Archaeological Trust. The overall aim of the project is to assess and introduce new tools and technologies that can aid the archaeological processes of recording, manipulating and analysing data. The researchers involved in the project have a mix of skills, ranging from those related to archaeology, and computer science, though to ones involving usability and user assessment. This paper reports on the status of the research and development work undertaken in the project so far; this includes addressing various programming hurdles, on- site experiments and experiences, and the outcomes of usability and assessment studies. Introduction The Silchester site (http://www.silchester.reading.ac.uk/) is used as a research and training excavation that has been taking place for the last eleven years. The actual excavation takes place annually in July and August for about six-weeks each year and includes a variety of archaeologists ranging from very experienced ones through to novices. The annual excavation allows us to: study the use of advanced IT in an archaeological context; investigate the tasks carried out within an excavation; ascertain how and where technologies can be used to 1 http://vera.rdg.ac.uk/