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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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    I have two suggestions

    1) I think the archaeology loot tables should be reduced. I believe that organic and metalic objects rarely survive long so restricting archaeology to lithics and ceramics seems more acurate. I feel like most people will engage with archaeology searching for sniffer eggs, pottery shards and armour trim so finding anything else may be disappointing. There are already several steps to go through to find the suspicious blocks so also having a random chance to find uninteresting loot feels bad. If these items are too rare it will mean exploring a lot and increasing world file size too much. Perhaps unique named items or trimmed armour pieces would be more interesting and tell a little history of the world. Finding a broken stone axe named "Hunter's Hatchet" is more interesting than a golden nugget that gets lost in a stack.

    2) Give pots another function and an inventory. Perhaps pots could store a single stack of items. This alone would give them a unique purpose and could be used to make redstone sorters. It would be even more interesting if pots could not be accessed normally by right clicking. You can't fit your hand in the narrow top. The only ways to access the inventory are with hoppers or by breaking the pot. These ideas were mentioned in the video where Etho, Xizuma, Cubfan and Eckosoldier discussed archaeology with Ulraf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EseKqgNwYSE&t=3611s

  • 1
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    ANCIENT CITY MAP
    FRAGMENTS!!!

    Imagine if in some Archeology sites you can find hidden map fragments. If you can find four you can combine it to craft an actual map that leads to Ancient Cities. (The maps would work similarly to Ocean Monument and Mansion maps).

    I think this would be a super cool exclusive and unique item that gives players more incentive to dig through these archeological sites! Please Mojang this would be super easy and cool!!

  • 1
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    please let us craft suspicious sand and suspicious gravel! this would be so good for decoration and we could make archaeology minigames that can be super cool! the way to get it can be by hurrying the item in the sand/gravel block with left click and turning it into suspicious, also let us grab suspicious blocks with silk touch enchantment

  • 4
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    make brush oxidize with time, let us find brushes in chests with different stages if oxidizing to determine how old they are

  • 2
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    Pottery could have a use in another field: writing! Being able to design pots with a complete (and pretty much understandable) alphabet would allow an addition on the appearance of writing in minecraft but also excellent decorations (signs, puzzles, ect ...). It was possible to write with maps or heads, but it requires a lot of effort, resources and time, which a classic player would not try to do... Have the opportunity to have a writing possibility with pottery specific to Minecraft would be really interesting!

  • 6
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    Archaeology should be added to more structures like jungle temples, ocean monuments, ruined portals, and more types of new structures.

  • 0
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    I think brushes should be able to have the efficiency enchantment, or perhaps a new enchantment, like luck for archeology. This could help improve player enthusiasm for the feature.

  • 3
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    I really like the archeology so far, the loot are nice! If you encounter a trails ruins you want to explore it !
    I would love to be able to find/trade a map that show the location of this structure.
    I like that when you sus out the strucuture you reveal the ruins ! It might be a little to much destroy/small to understand what it is but its nice that in the end of you your dig you can kinda explore the ruins.

  • 3
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    With the random new loot table, the brush should be enchantable with fortune

  • 0
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    There should be a way to give pottery shards to the wandering trader and if you give them one of each you will then be able to buy more from the trader.

  • 2
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    You should find tomb in desert and graveyard for archeology with sus sand/gravel. Inside them, you uncover some bones and richness like gold, diamond and emerald. Skeleton skull, zombie skull and Steve skull should be part of the loot table too. Or even better, a skeleton or zombie can spawn and attack you! It’s like if the dead attack you because you are steeling is bones.

  • 5
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    I suggest how you can decorate archeology pots and flower pots, more specifically with terracotta and glazed terracotta. For example, an empty pot without patterns can be decorated with glazed terracotta and ordinary terracotta of any color, just because of glazed terracotta, an empty pot will have patterns similar to those of glazed terracotta.

    If you take pots with patterns that can be found in archeology, then they can only be painted with ordinary terracotta.

    The crafting of decorated pots will be such that the pot on the crafting table will be in the middle, and around the pot is terracotta.

    Crafts with flower pot decoration will work exactly the same as archeological pots.

    I also think that we need to add a function to the archaeological pots so that they can plant flowers 2 blocks high, this would be very beautiful and many builders will need it.

  • 1
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    i think it had quite of wasted potential, it's weird to add the brush just for those very specific blocks, the recipe is also very weird, i wish they added some more uses for it like how they normally do with anything added to the game, until recently it seems

  • 0
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    In the latest snapshot our archeology changed a lot, but I'd love to see a function with putting pottery shards on decorative pots in a different way than just a simple recipe in crafting table. The greatest thing of course would be the old system with clay decorative pots, but if we could make 'em in smithing table, I wouldn't be mad. It can work really simple - we put pottery shard first, then a pot and in the end an ingredient. This way we could have colored patterns on our pots! To make the default color style on them, we should use a copper ingot as ingredient.

  • 0
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    I really liked the idea of being able to place the shards on the clay pot and then heating it up to harden it. I do hope this gets added back into the game because I am not a big fan of just crafting it. Also as a bonus it would be cool if we would be able to color the pots with terracotta colors.

  • 1
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    There should be more than decorative pots for archeology. Maybe add recipe books for various new weapons

  • 3
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    Fossils need to be made dig sites, as well as making the new trail ruins structure more accessible by having it a bit less buried underground.

  • 1
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    when thinking about archeology most people think of dinosaur skeletons. It would be really cool if that could be integrated into the game. For example, being able to find bones which ones you could put together to create a nice looking skeleton of a rex for example. It would be complicated but really interesting to try finding as many bones or body parts. 

    Furthermore, the structure now looks like random blocks put together. Archeology could have so much potential. 

  • 3
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    The only thing I suggest is to be able to dye the pots. Brown is kinda a bland color 

  • 0
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    I feel like the brush still isn't useful enough. Currently, with the trail ruins, it at least balances things somewhat but the ocean has quite a number of ruins available to dig. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is stuck with only the desert having points of interest other than the occasional trail ruin. I believe having small structures scattered about that have suspicious sand and gravel in them would go a long way in balancing that spread.

    Maybe ancient buried wandering trader outposts that spawn in wandering traders more frequently around them. They could be towers that slowly got buried with time, but whose upper floor still is used(the upper floor did not get buried, and so it looks like a really short 1 floor tower) with a chest or barrel in them containing some of the items traders usually offer as well as a lit or extinguished campfire.

    Travellers, after all do seek shelter and these could be safe zones for them outside of villages.

    Things like that, that add flavor to the world would really go well with how minecraft plays. Small structures like odd statues or something or having village wells contain discarded emeralds, paper, sugarcane and poison potatoes really would be nice.

    And finally, the biggest buff to the brush: make suspicious sand/gravel/other possible to make by the player. Allowing players to make their own custom ruins in survival as well as new ways to give rewards in survival is so amazing for minigames and such. Even better if it were automatable.

  • 0
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    I love the new shards! You can really do a lot of combinations with them. Overall it's a great system now, but I have few more ideas. First, it should be possible to put items inside the pots. It would really be useful for some The Legend of Zelda maps and stuff. Simply right clicking the pot would put an item or liquid inside.

  • 0
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    I didn't expect the addition of these new shards. For a few days now, I've been noticing that mojang is starting to notice that Mojang is taking more care of the game

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    it would be nice if we could place pots with dispensers like shulker boxes, since we can already break them with pistones, we could do some rotatable pot displays or something like that

  • 0
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    i have three little feedbacks for the ocean ruins and desert well archeology

    1 - there need to be some support underneath the ocean ruins cause some of the sand and gravel falls when generated wich breaks some of the sus block inside of them

    2 - pot shards should be much more commun since they are unreneuable and if we want some low tier items we can just look in the chests (wich can hold more than one item, unlike the sus sand and gravel), it is especially true in desert wells since they are much rarer and there only are 2 or 3 sus sand inside of them

    3 - remove those digglydoo wooden hoes from the loot tables, i got sooo much of them during my brushings

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    The Archeology system is great as it is, but there are some tweaks that I think would make it just a bit better. Mainly about the pots.

    1. Revert to the old way of crafting the pots.
    - It is a new, unique, fun way to craft a new decorative item.
    - It teaches the players how it might be done in the real world which is cool and something you've aimed for previously.

    2. Dyable pots.
    - To give the players color-freedom with such an amazing block would be a very apreciated feature.
    - Other similar functioning blocks (candles, banners, etc.) all have the 16 colors + a basic variant.

    3. Pot inventory.
    - When we players first heard about pots in Minecraft a lot of us went straight to Zelda and wanted to break them to get rupees. Of course you can't just add rupees to the game, but having an inventory that can't be accessed without breaking the pot would be such a fun feature. I'd suggest a one-slot inventory which can hold up to a limited number of items. Could be 1, 8, 16, 32, 64, I don't really care.
    - The main thing is: can add items (maybe by right-clicking or by using a hopper) but can't retrieve it without smashing the pot, which you have already implemented in a good way, I think.

    To put the features together:
    - Craft the pot by putting clayballs in a U-shape in the crafting grid.
    - Put the clay pot on the ground and add whatever shards you want.
    - Here you can also add the color you want.
    - Ignite a fire beneath the pot to heat it.
    - Pot is now ready. Ready to be smashed.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    I think you should be able to dye the shards to make even more beautiful pots!

     

  • 6
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    i personally think that pots could be found in villagers or other structures, and that they would have some emeralds in them, like in minecraft dungeons

  • 3
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    When you place sus sand and gravel in bedrock, can we have something inside? Or at least be able to put things inside?

  • 1
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    I feel like the minigame aspect of stopping your brushing at the right time should come back!! Archeology is a unique mechanic with a unique tool after all and we want players to be careful and pay atention to the treasure they´re digging. It would really help break the monotony

  • 4
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    Add the ability to dig near the skeletons of extinct animals.

    I would also like to see objects "fossils" with different textures. Just like a collectible, but you can think of a little more uses, for example, use it in crafting. They can be handed over to a wandering merchant, depending on the texture, he will offer a different price.

    You can also add amber, it can be found somewhere in warm places. Can be used in crafting something.

    In general, a wandering merchant could buy various items found during excavations. Particularly unique: pot shards, fossils, amber, etc.

    Also, the tools found must be broken, they are ancient.

    You can also add maps to some structures and a new enchantment to the excavations. In general, it would be nice to find fragments of maps that, when combined with paper on the cartographer's table, get an inferior map to the place. And then add parts to this map until the whole one is assembled. And if you add a record, then you can make it in pieces, like a Varden one.