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Let's talk about Archeology!

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Archaeology is coming to Minecraft in update 1.20, and you can try it out right now in Java snapshot and as an experimental feature in Bedrock!

This new system has several components, introducing a new craftable item (the brush) and new blocks (suspicious sand and decorative pots), as well as changes to desert temples and wells. You can read more about how it all works in the changelogs linked below. 

We're still developing archeology, so your thoughts and feedback are greatly appreciated as work continues in the lead-up to the final 1.20 release. Let us know what you think in the comments! 

How to test new Minecraft Features: 
https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/testing-new-minecraft-features

Latest Changelogs:

You can find all previous changelogs in the Knowledge Base in the "Beta Information and Changelogs" category.

 

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  • 1
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    Pots losing the overworld interaction is a huge downgrade. Hand-placing shards and firing the pot is so much more interesting as an experience compared to putting things in a crafting table.

  • 2
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    I think you should be able to find maps that lead to other desert temples. Maybe these can be within an old bottle or something. Since the paper would likely not survive being in sand or any sediment for that long. It would just work in a way where when you right click the bottle it opens and the item is replaced with the map :)

  • 4
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    I feel like some interesting things we could get from archeology would be Fossils different from the ingame Bone Structures. Imagine digging in a village and finding parts of a Golem that you can put together to display or digging on a beach or ravine and finding the skeleton of a kraken like mob. Maybe for something like the slime you would have to find a slime core and you have to build a fake replica out of slime balls or honey. A cool thing you could do if you added fossils would be Fossils of mobs that weren't picked for the mob vote or unique mobs from Minecraft dungeons. I imagine that you would mainly get incomplete skeletons or bodies (for Constructs) unless you were really lucky.

    Some interesting places to dig would be in other dimensions like the end or nether. Having unique dig site in different biomes would be cool but I imagine that would be a lot of work so I understand if that doesn't happen anytime soom. A new biome for fossils like a Tar Pit biome would be really cool.

    Anyway that was my thoughts on archeology hope you choose to add atleast one.

  • 3
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    It would be interesting if the artifacts could be dyed to add further customization to the pots.

  • 1
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    I like the new items from the archaeology(4 vases and a brush). But it seems such a small concept with huge potential. I was waiting more for things like excavations sites in the world of minecraft. They could be found in the over world or in the caves. This excavation sites would spawn randomly and then there you could find interesting things. That was the concept I understood from the video of 2019/2020 you guys showed. I didn´t wasn´t expecting it was only a vase with a brush. I know it still things to come. But the best idea I can give for archaeology is excavations site. Don´t get me wrong. The itens are fun. But they don´t bring anything to Minecraft whatsoever. 

  • 4
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    -More excavation sites like jungle temples, ocean ruins, ancient citys, etc with new ceramic shards designs unique to each structure (suspicius red sand, gravel and dirt could be other types of blocks to dig).
    -Also brush recipe should use copper ingot.
    -If the sniffer is an ancient type mob, they could add another mob of the same type discovering an egg or fossil.
    -Use dye for decorate pots.

     

  • 1
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    I think that the brush would be better to be crafted as a stick, copper ingot, and a feather.

    Suspicious sand should also generate in desert oases. Perfect way to integrate the confirmed palm trees, as civilizations often congregate near water. An oasis would be a great spot for finding pottery shards, sticks, etc.

  • 3
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    I would add more locations, namely jungle temples and ruined portals with corresponding loot tables. Each location should have unique shards.
    While updating the desert and jungle pyramids, go all out.
    For desert temples, replace the simple chest room with a medium sized labyrinth. This could generate similarly to strongholds. I think there should be a few rooms with a random amount of “ruinedness.” Loot chests could be found, along with bits of suspicious sand.
    For jungle temples, I would make the basement more cave-like, occasionally intersecting temple rooms with altars and whatnot. The caves should feel similar to lush caves, but more dangerous, (like and Indiana Jones esque temple). The temple rooms could have loot chests, traps, and/or suspicious gravel or dirt. I would also improve the loot tables of the jungle temple.
    For the ruined portals, I would just have a few pieces of suspicious gravel around.

  • 0
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    In archaeology, pillager raids on the player could be added, in real life there are also bandits who are interested in ancient treasures. They will occur with a certain chance during the excavation, and the player will have to break away to reflect them. If the player loses, the excavation site will be cleaned upon arrival at the excavation site, if the player had ancient treasures in his inventory, they will disappear and the player will not be able to return them. Thus, archaeology becomes a difficult and dangerous occupation

  • 2
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    It would be cool if you could find skulls next to chests in suspicious sand, like a grave. The chest could include weapons or books (which could hopefully include a story!)

  • 3
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    I think the brush can have another purpose as a paintbrush, maybe to be able to paint on a blank painting canvas. It is easier than making map art, which takes a lot of resources and trial and error. This could work by filling the pot with every kind of dye, to allow you to use any of the main colors, and maybe more in between with a color slider. This would make for great storytelling and personalization. This can also apply to maps for marking notable locations. 

  • 3
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    I think the brush crafting recipe should be 3 feathers on the top, a copper ingot in the center, and a stick on the center bottom. This keeps the same shape you released while also being more true to the texture of the brush (think copper being thinned and folded around the stick to hold the feathers in place)
    An alternative, more complicated recipe would be the above but with string in the right and left center boxes (showing the copper is held onto the stick by tightly wrapped string).

    I also think it should have durability, like any other tool.

  • 2
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    You should only be able to pick up suspicious sand with a silk touch tool. If you try to break it with your fist or non-silk touch tool it will just give you sand.
    This means archeology is still easily achieved in the early game, but you're rewarded with being able to take suspicious sand home with you once you're in the later part of the game.

  • 3
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    Brush crafting recipe should have feathers instead of string to add more feather uses, and add a single coper in the middle instead of a stick to add to the durability and visual of the brush.

  • 0
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    Weapons, armor and tools in pieces and use the anvil or the crafting table to assemble the piece and get the items

  • 3
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    Archeology so far is at a very good starting place. Having to carefully shovel around to expose suspicious sand and then brush it away is very engaging and feels like I'm actually carrying out an excavation. And adding the hidden antechamber to desert temples is a great way to bring new life to and old existing structure. More of that, please!

    My primary criticisms/recommendations so far are:

    • Having the pots be dyeable. Being able to dye pots would vastly increase the amount of customization we can do and would also fit with them being made of terracotta, which itself is a dyeable block.
    • Consider including the abandoned zombie desert villages in the structures where suspicious sand can generate
    • Additional shard patterns and more unique, lore-based loot
  • 1
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    Honestly im blown away by the amout and the quality of content we got but i do think the entire Archaeology system needs more like artifact locations at least a mini structure and pottery really underwhelming we could do with more i understand if you cant do too much but i do think hope and prey there will be more like adding different types of pots and maybe even vase, jugs, amphoras and urns or even a chalice and have them in the 16 main colors in minecraft with maybe some intricate designs maybe the community could help make and send the designs and shapes and when it comes to the locations i really hope there will be dig sights in multiple biomes like desert, badlands, mangrove swamp, swamps, savanna, meddow  there is alot more ideas i have but i dont wanna keep spewing them out like this now, the cherry groves are amazing i just wish they were a little larger but i think they are good as they are and next off sniffer i love everything about it and hope u have more in store for it the torchflower on the other hand really should glow in the dark and i hope there is much more plants coming you guys are amazing id also love yo see some of the crafting recipes tweakes and well yoy this is awesome and i love the work and effort being put into all of this thank you and if anyone would like to atleast hear me out on my ideas just tweet me on twitter at Toneystream4088 also desert update would be awesome for this update

  • 1
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    When making a brush, the first thing I tried was sticks and string, and I was correct! the recipe is perfect, please don't change it. Then I noticed that by right clicking you could brush any block, not just suspicious sand, it's good that it works like that because otherwise I wouldn't have known how to use it.

    I found a pyramid buried in sand, so I dug around for a while but couldn't find anything. Then I went in but I didn't see anything new either until I noticed a bit of sand on the floor, I thought it wasn't important but in one of the patches I found stairs and that's when I understood everything, there's a new room!

    I like that the suspicious sand makes a ceramic noise when it breaks, it's a good hint, and the little animation of the item coming out is cool (but I'll keep waiting for layers of sand :P).

    As for the new room, it's strange that it has the same "cross" as on the main floor but without a hidden treasure underneath and it also feels very empty, I was hoping to find something that could tell me what that room was used for, maybe a crafting table or something that indicates someone was there in the past doing something.

    I tried to make the decorated pot but I had to look up the recipe, I wouldn't have figured it out on my own. I thought I had to craft a pot without decoration (in the shape of a cauldron but with bricks) and then click on the pot with the fragments.

    It was a fun experience and I hope to see more of it in other structures!

  • 2
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    i would've love the dig sites to make a come back as it tell a story of an ancient civilization from a distant past.

    i also like the idea of making pots over a fire like in the showcase better than crafting them with brick, As well as adding more unique loot to encourage more players to use the archeology like for example: unique armor, tools, food, and other crafting components that are not craftable and exclusive to archeology.

    the archeology could also expand into other biomes with different themes And unique items for example:

    Desert: [Ancient Egypt] Pharaoh Headdress, Staff Of Ra, Sun Shard

    Cherry Grove: [The Dynasty Era] Dynasty Planter Box, Rice, Villager or illager Statue, Dragon Shard

    Swamps: [Ancient Hut] Witch's Brew, Frog Wart, cauldron shard, Spell Trim

    Jungle: [The Lost City] Dart Trap, Whip, Sun God Shard, Ancient Totem, Golem Component

    Mangrove swamps: [Siren Sanctuary] Rasp, Siren Shard, Mosquito Trim, Airboat Component

    Tundra: [Ice Age] Mammoth Fur, Quiver, Bog Bilberry, Frost Trim

    Forest: [Druid Society] Healing Spell Book, Druid Mask, Tree Shard, Flute

    Savannah: [Stone Age] Ancient Pot, Spear Head, Club, Kiva Bell, Hunter Trim

    in the showcase for archeology you were able to add more than one shard, the max amount for each side should be 5 - 7

  • 2
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    I think the ability to dye the pots like Terracotta would be great. I also think more designs need to be added to really give some more variety. Also, maybe there could be say, suspicious gravel or clay, which spawns around Pillager Camps or some such. Or add in abandoned archeology sites which contain them. Suspicious SoulSand which spawns near Ruined Portals could also be interesting. Finally I think that Copper isn't a wild resource to ask players to obtain for the brushes.

  • 3
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    I think the pots look really nice for decoration, but it could be neat to add some minor functionality to them. My thinking is making them work as basic storage, where right clicking them with items in hand will put the items in - only storing about two or so stacks of a single type of item would be fine though for the next idea.
    I like the idea that hitting the pot with a tool in hand breaks it apart, but it would be really neat to be able to smash the pot to get the items out, sort of like how clay pots work in games like "The Legend of Zelda."
    If you could carry the pot with the items inside it could act as a cheap, early-game Shulker Box that can only condense a few stacks of one item type - not taking over the Bundle's job, which allows a variety of items up to the normal stack size.
    This would add an extra reason to interact with the pots, helping players in the early-game carry a large amount of building blocks or materials, as well as adding a fun, unique mechanic for multiplayer servers or adventure maps to take advantage of!

  • 0
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    It will be really cool if there will be more structure base on archeology like "Excavation Sites" and beside of Suspicious Sand, there will be a Suspicious Dirt and Suspicious Gravel for the different Excavation Site. But so far, i'm so amazed for the pots. I know it's work in progress and there will be more improvement eo it.

  • 1
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    Speaking of Decorative Shards, i would to see that you can design your own Decorative shard. Like the mechanics of banner.

  • 11
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    The brush does not have enough utility to justify it taking up space in my inventory while exploring. It should have more uses to fit in with the other tools.

    Things the brush could do:

    • Sweep away cobwebs and possibly replace shears as the tool to gather them or gain extra string
    • Use on gravel to guarantee flint
    • Brush mobs with fur to get string
    • Tickle mobs to stun them or make them sneeze (sneezing drops a slimeball)
    • Clean blocks like the respawn anchor or sticky piston (drops the glowstone and slimeball)
  • 2
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    The new look of the pots is solid and a better fit for the game than the older design. 4 pictures for the pot sides does not make for interesting combinations yet. More can come in future releases, of course, but I think it needs a stronger set to start.

  • 1
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    I am happy with the design but I miss the way you used to put them on fire so keep the design and maybe try to implement that.(add more clay pot peices)

  • 5
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    I love this first look at archaeology! With some further additions I think this system will fit into Minecraft perfectly. My suggestions//feedback are:

    • Add more shard patterns, since IRL clay pots had/have tons of variety. Examples of possible patterns:
    • Add a lip to the top of the pots like the original iteration of pots had, or add alternate pot shapes
    • The ability to dye pots would be great, using the same colors present in all of the colored terracotta blocks.
    • More structures/biomes should have suspicious blocks(like suspicious gravel, suspicious dirt, etc). I think good candidates would be ocean ruins, jungle temples, mine shafts, and ancient cities. It would be cool for there to be potentially new structures added for archaeology, like other ruined buildings(like a ruined tower, or a bigger desert pyramid, or land-equivalents of the ocean ruins).
    • Brushes should have copper as part of their recipe
    • Unique treasure loot would be neat, such as:
      • gemstones that could be applied to tools like armor trims, like rubies, sapphires, jade, etc
      • a decorative, place-able book that looks ancient. call it "ancient tome" or something
      • "Clay tablets" that function similar to paintings, but with hieroglyphics and cave art instead
  • 3
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    Brush crafting recipie should change to this:

    String. Feather. String
    N/a          Stick.            N/a
      n/a     Copper Ingot.       N/a
    This new recipie would make more sense and give some uses to semi useless items like feathers and copper.  As for pots, two to three more shard designs.  Maybe a community competition for those???  Maybe the pots are dyeable, hold 1-2 stacks of items, and/or naturally generate in desert temples, jungle temples, and desert villages.  Just my thoughts.  The new desert temple room is amazing though!

  • 10
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    Hiya Mojang Development Team!
    I have a super simple suggestion that I think would strongly fit into the game, which is to allow large plants, like roses, lilacs, and peonies to be planted inside large pots!  This feature would be wonderful for builders, as well as creating consistency with small pots and potted plants, and would also just look super cool. 
    Please consider this idea, as I feel it would fit a small niche in Minecraft very nicely!
    Thank you for your time! 

  • 3
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    There are some things that I would like to see added and that might improve the archeology experience.
    One of them is that just like in the desert temples, they also add secret rooms in the jungle temples since this would add a plus and an extra mechanic to this structure that is very outdated and I think we all agree on this last.
    Besides if there is suspicious sand, you should also see suspicious dirt and suspicious gravel, and that these could appear in the jungle temples and in the ruins respectively.
    It would also be nice if they added more pottery shards, at least another 4 or 6 more since that would add more customization.
    I hope I have contributed something, thank you very much : )