Archaeological excavations provide us with important clues about the past. Excavated artefacts represent an important connection to civilisations that no longer exist and help us understand some of their customs, traditions and common practices. With the help of academics and practitioners from various disciplines, the results of archaeological excavations can be analysed and a body of knowledge about the corresponding society can be created and shared with members of the general public. Museums have traditionally served the purpose of communicating this knowledge and backing it up with the help of the excavated artefacts. Many museum visitors, however, find it difficult to develop a coherent understanding of the corresponding society only based on the artefacts and annotations shown in museums. Effective modern techniques that have high potential in helping museum visitors with better understanding of the past are 3D reconstruction and virtual reality. 3D reconstruction offers a cost-effective way of recreating historical settlements in a computer-generated virtual environment, while virtual reality helps with immersing people into such environments and reaching a high degree of realism. With the help of these technologies, it becomes possible to relive history, imagine yourself being a part of the reconstructed society and learn about its culture firsthand. The combination of 3D reconstruction and virtual reality represents a very powerful learning tool; however, this tool has been rarely used in a museum setting and its correct use has not been properly investigated. In this paper, we present a study into using virtual reality in itinerant archaeological exhibitions. We discuss the lessons we have learned from developing an interactive virtual reality simulation of the Neolithic settlement of La Draga. These lessons feature our analysis of qualitative and quantitative feedback of museum visitors, as well as what we have learned from analysing their navigation and interaction patterns.

中文翻译：

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通过虚拟现实补充考古博物馆展览的经验教训

考古发掘为我们提供了有关过去的重要线索。出土文物代表着与不再存在的文明的重要联系，并帮助我们了解了它们的某些习俗，传统和惯例。在各学科的学者和实践者的帮助下，可以分析考古发掘的结果，并且可以创建有关相应社会的知识体系并与公众共享。传统上，博物馆的目的是传播这些知识并在出土文物的帮助下进行备份。然而，许多博物馆参观者发现仅根据博物馆中显示的人工制品和注解很难发展对相应社会的连贯理解。3D重建和虚拟现实是可以有效帮助博物馆参观者更好地了解过去的有效现代技术。3D重建提供了一种经济有效的方式来在计算机生成的虚拟环境中重建历史住区，而虚拟现实则有助于使人们沉浸在此类环境中并达到高度的真实感。借助这些技术，可以重温历史，想象自己是重建社会的一部分，并直接了解其文化。3D重建和虚拟现实的结合代表了一种非常强大的学习工具。但是，此工具很少在博物馆环境中使用，并且尚未正确研究其正确用法。在本文中，我们提出了一项在巡回考古展览中使用虚拟现实的研究。我们将讨论从开发拉德拉加新石器时代居民点的交互式虚拟现实模拟中学到的经验教训。这些课程的特色是我们对博物馆参观者的定性和定量反馈进行了分析，以及从对他们的导航和互动方式进行分析中学到的知识。