How we would like to be buried is a question very few of us consider but that’s what a computer scientist at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) wants to know. The answers will help with the exploration of burial sites around Stonehenge as part of the €8m Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project.
Dr Eugene Ch’ng, from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at UNNC, has developed an new interactive scientific game in the hope that 21st century crowd-sourcing will shed light on what people who commemorated the dead 4,000 years ago were thinking. He will unveil the game at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2015 which is taking place in London from Tuesday 30 June to Friday 3 July.
Dr Ch’ng said: “Hidden behind the game is a scientific enquiry. We want to know why people were buried in elaborate graves and what importance they attached to the landscape and other monuments around Stonehenge. The answers we get will help us understand why certain parts of the hidden landscape around Stonehenge might attract more burials or how grave goods and their importance affect burial locations."
Watch a video about Dr Ch'ng's work on Stonehenge.
As well as the chance to take part in research into one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments, visitors to the exhibition will learn about the work that has already been carried out by the Stonehenge Landscape Project, including the development of the most detailed archaeological digital map of Stonehenge.
Using remote sensing techniques and geophysical surveys including ground–penetrating radar and 3D laser scanners, the project team has mapped miles of the landscape around Stonehenge in unprecedented detail. It has already revealed 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating to the period when Stonehenge achieved its iconic shape.
Dr Ch’ng said: “The majority of previous studies of the Stonehenge landscape have focused on the famous stone monuments that remain visible today. However, so much archaeology is not visible at the surface and non-invasive real-time visualisation technologies are allowing us to reconstruct and explore the landscape so that we can see what else might have been there.
“This increased knowledge about the hidden landscape of Stonehenge has meant that it is now possible to explore the evolution of the landscape and how the different monuments might have been used.”
"Stonehenge is one of the most recognisable and intensively studied archaeological sites in the world and for centuries has generated curiosity and wonder. The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes project is allowing computer scientists to work with archaeologists, using complexity systems science to dramatically increase our understanding of this internationally important site and gain new insights into the ancient peoples who used Stonehenge.
"Dr Ch’ng’s involvement in high-performance computing, complex systems simulation and visualisation on the Stonehenge hidden landscapes began when he became Director of Innovations at the Digital Humanities Hub, and the IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (now BEARView) at the University of Birmingham.
He is now Deputy Director for the International Doctoral Innovation Centre Digital Economy Strand at UNNC.
The Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project is a collaborative project led by the Ludwig Bolzmann Institute and the University of Birmingham.
For more information on the project contact Dr Eugene Ch’ng.
More press information about UNNC is available from Tess Humphrys, communications and marketing officer.