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Minecraft: Lockdown Lesson Recreates Ancient Island Tomb

Minecraft: Lockdown lesson recreates an ancient island tomb Written by George Herd BBC News



Take an archaeologist, a bored girl who is in coronavirus lockdown, and a common fascination with exploring ancient tombs.



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



It is Dr Ben Edwards from Wrexham and his daughter Bella who have done it.



They are sharing their models of Anglesey's Bryn Celli Ddu with classrooms across the world.



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



The burial mound dates back to approximately five thousand years. Its called the "passage Tomb" is perfectly aligned with the sun at dawn on the solstice of summer.



Recent excavations at the site, as well as some carried out by Dr. Edwards, Manchester Metropolitan University archaeologist, have revealed that the burial chamber was designed as"henge" "henge".



Like Stonehenge This was a ceremonial enclosure that consisted of the bank surrounding an inner ditch, encased by a circle of upright stones.



Dr Edwards has used those digs, alongside work with researchers from the University of Central Lancashire and Wales' historical environment service Cadw to meticulously recreate Bryn Celli Ddu in the video game.



It was then incorporated in the educational edition of Minecraft, which is used across the world to deliver lessons on everything from chemistry to computer programming.



Now you can add a bit of ancient Welsh history to your collection.



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"I knew Bella had the education version of Minecraft at school near Wrexham and I had it at my university.



Dr. Edwards, who worked on other computer models of Bryn Celli Ddu in past years and said that "So it was always in my thoughts for a while..."



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



"I just said to Bella"Should we have an opportunity to try this?'"



The game is renowned for being able to build almost anything from graphic blocks, resulting in massive worlds and playgrounds.



Although it could be a game, Dr Edwards used the technique of Bryn Celli Ddu seriously and utilized actual maps of the world to recreate the landscape for the Minecraft models.



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



The game also features rock art by Bryn Celli Ddu, as well as a model of a Neolithic home.



According to Dr. Edwards, the hardest thing to build was not the burial mounds but the house.



"It was planting the trees," he said.



Each one had to be "planted" by Bella and her dad in order to be part of the Minecraft world.



Dr Edwards admitted that Bella needed to teach her how to do various things since she uses it more frequently than I do.



In the end, she was in favor of the final version, and said it was "very real".



"And she's aware of it, since she used to come down to the excavations too," her father added.



Dr Ffion Reynolds, of Cadw, said it was exactly children such as Bella who would benefit from playing with the Minecraft model.



Dr. Reynolds said, "We were looking at innovative ways to offer people an online experience of Bryn Celli Ddu." Minecraft Servers He would normally during the summer months give guided tours of the excavations to schools in the area.



"This was a means to maintain our relationship with the schools, and offering them the option of visiting the website digitally."



Coronavirus restrictions have resulted in Cadw's sites in Wales being closed to the public, including Bryn Celli Ddu.



It also meant that for the first year in years, people who celebrated the solstice of summer weren't able to meet at the burial mound in order to observe the sunrise spectacle there.



"However it did let us get access with an exclusive camera crew, and we have been able capture the sunrise there with 360-degree filming." Dr. Reynolds said.



She stated that Cadw hopes to make the video accessible in the near future, and reopen the site to the public.



Those who have access to Minecraft at home or at school can now visit the site online in peace.



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



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



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15 June 2019



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