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Minecraft Lockdown Lesson Recreates Ancient Island Tomb

Minecraft: Lockdown lesson recreates ancient island tomb By George Herd BBC News



Imagine an archaeologist and a bored schoolgirl locked down by coronavirus. They share an fascination with exploring ancient tombs.



The result? One of Wales the most important Bronze Age sites recreated - in the video game Minecraft.



It is the achievement of Dr. Ben Edwards, from Wrexham, and his daughter Bella 11.



They are sharing their models of Anglesey's Bryn Celli Ddu with classrooms all over the globe.



The models can be loaded into the block-building universe of Minecraft, and explored to find out more about both the siteand Neolithic life and art.



The burial mound dates back around 5 000 years ago. Its so-called "passage Tomb" is a perfect alignment with the sun's rising on summer solstice.



Recent excavations at this site, including some by the Manchester Metropolitan University archaeologist Dr Edwards himself, revealed that the burial chamber was built as an "henge".



This was similar to Stonehenge and consisted of a bank around an internal ditch, encircling in a circle by upright stones.



Dr Edwards used these digs along with work with researchers from University of Central Lancashire, Wales' historic environment service Cadw to precisely recreate Bryn Celli Ddu for the video game.



It was then incorporated in the educational edition of Minecraft, which is used around the globe to teach lessons in everything from chemistry to computer coding.



You can now add a bit of Welsh history to the list.



From cromlechs and cairns – Wales ancient burial grounds



The history of the world The Bryn Celli Ddu stone



Why the prehistoric built so many hill forts?



BBC Radio 3: New Generation Thinkers' Seren Griffiths on Bryn Celli Ddu



"I knew that Bella had access to the education version of Minecraft at school here, close to Wrexham, and I had access to it at my university.



"So it was always in the back of my mind for a while to do something with Minecraft," said Dr Edwards, who has worked on other more mature computer models of Bryn Celli Ddu in the past.



"It was not a top priority, but then it's lockdown time, it's the Easter holidays, and you're homeschooling.



"I just said to Bella"Should we have a go at this?'"



The game is renowned for being able to construct almost anything from blocks of graphics, creating huge worlds and playgrounds.



While it might be an actual game, Dr. Edwards took the method of Bryn Celli Ddu seriously, and used actual geographical mapping data to recreate the landscape for Minecraft models.



It also includes the tomb, as it may have been constructed in the Bronze Age, and alongside it, burial mounds and pits have been discovered in the past few years.



The game also features rock art from Bryn Celli Ddu, as an illustration of the Neolithic home.



According to Dr Edwards the most difficult thing to construct was not the burial mounds, but the house.



He said, "It was planting trees."



Each one was individually "planted" and grown by Bella and her father as part of the Minecraft world.



"Bella had to teach me how to do a lot of things, because she uses it more than I do," Dr Edwards confessed.



She ultimately approved the final version and said that it was "very real".



"And she knows, because she used to come down to the diggings as well," her father added.



Dr Ffion Reynolds, from Cadw, said it was precisely children like Bella who would benefit from playing with the Minecraft model.



"We were looking for creative ways to provide people with a digital experience of Bryn Celli Ddu." said Dr Reynolds, who would normally spend the summer months giving guided tours of the excavations to schools from the area.



"This was a way to continue our relationship with these schools, and offer them a way to visit the site online."



Coronavirus restrictions mean that Cadw's facilities across Wales have been closed to the public including Bryn Celli Ddu.



It also meant, for the first time ever people who celebrate the summer solstice weren't able to gather at the burial mound to observe the dawning phenomenon that took place there.



Dr Reynolds said that the sunrise view was possible using 360-degree filming.



She said Cadw hopes to make the footage available in the very near future, as well as opening the site back to visitors.



In the meantime, anyone with internet access at home or in school can now access Minecraft digitally - and in complete safety.
Prioritygame.com


The Bryn Celli Ddu Minecraft world is free to download for the Minecraft Education version from Hwb - the Welsh Government's teaching resource site as well as from the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage.



For those who want an experience that is more serious Dr. Andrews and his team have developed an app for augmented reality available for Apple devices, which will guide visitors around the real site - once it reopens.



New excavations at a prehistoric burial site



15 June 2019



A new discovery in an ancient tomb



23 June 2017



Around the BBC



BBC Radio 3: The New Generation Thinkers



Bryn Celli Ddu


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