The 5th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2004) K. Cain, Y. Chrysanthou, F. Niccolucci, N. Silberman (Editors) New Perspectives on Ancient Landscapes: A Case Study of the Foulness Valley J. Pansiot 1 , P.M. Chapman 1 , W.J. Viant 1 and P. Halkon 2 1 Department of Computer Science, The University of Hull, UK 2 Department of History, The University of Hull, UK pansiot@iie.cnam.fr, {Paul.Chapman|W.J.Viant|A.P.Halkon}@hull.ac.uk Abstract The standard method for gathering and representing archaeological information consists of two-dimensional layer managers. This paper presents an archaeological Geographical Information System (GIS) based on an immersive virtual environment. Our goal is to provide an immersive visualisation of multiple datasets relating to the Foulness Valley in East Yorkshire. By maximising the user’s visual bandwidth within an immersive virtual environment, we have provided archeologists with greater insight into the Foulness Valley datasets using both existing and novel visualisation tools and techniques. Keywords: Archaeology, Virtual Environment, Immersive, CIDOC CRM. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism 1. Introduction The modern archaeologist can be overwhelmed with the huge quantity of data generated from contemporary scan- ning and measurement technologies as detailed in [Ash03]. The problem is further compounded by the vast quantity of data types, format and representations in use today. Two- dimensional Geographical Information Systems (GIS), for example Arcview and its successors, are nowadays widely used by archaeologists in order to gather a large amount of data into a single visualisation. These software systems re- main a simple layer manager that do not provide high level visualisation and navigation tools. This paper initially describes the dataset used within the case study and then describes the hardware architecture we relied on to create a sense of immersion. We subsequently describe the terrain modelling and the metaphors used for representing the varied datasets. Finally we explain the var- ious immersive navigation methods used and describe how we evaluated the system. 2. Dataset: The Foulness Valley Our case study site is located in the ‘Foulness Valley’, East Yorkshire, UK. This is one of the most detailed landscape studies yet undertaken in Northern England. Discoveries in- clude the Hasholme log-boat and an internationally signif- icant prehistoric iron industry [HM99]. Data generated and used within this project include: • Digital Elevation Model (DEM) – accuracy: 1m. • Colour Ordnance Survey (OS) maps. • 200 air photos. • Rectified crop-mark plots covering c. 20x30km from the English Heritage Vale of York/Yorkshire Wolds National Mapping Programmes. • Detailed field-walking results over 64 km 2 . • Soil survey maps/manuscript data at various scales. • Information from excavation of a range of sites: texts, pic- tures and numerical databases. • Three-dimensional records and reconstructions (including a Roman Fort). Elements of this data have been integrated into a two- dimensional Geographical Information Systems (GIS): Ar- cview. Although Arcview and its successors contain a ba- c  The Eurographics Association 2004.