Notes

Minecraft Lockdown Lesson Recreates Ancient Island Tomb

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



Find an archaeologist, a bored girl who is in coronavirus lockdown, and a shared desire to explore ancient tombs.



The result? Strongcraft.org One of 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 Bryncelli Ddu with schools across the world.



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



The burial mound dates back 5 000 years, and is the so-called "passage tomb" whose entrance aligns perfectly with the sun's rays at dawn on the solstice of summer.



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



Like Stonehenge It was a sacred enclosure made up of a bank that was surrounded by an inner ditch, encased by upright stones.



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



It was then integrated in Minecraft's educational edition that is used across the world to teach chemistry lessons and computer programming.



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



From cromlechs and graves - Wales ancient burial grounds



History of the world: The Bryn Celli Ddu stone



Why did the prehistoric era build so many hill forts



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



"I was aware that Bella had access to the education version of Minecraft at school here, near Wrexham and I also had access to it at my college.



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



"It was never a major priority, but now you are in lockdown and it's Easter time and you're at doing your homeschooling.



"I just said to Bella"Shall you have a go at this?'"



The game is famous for being able to build almost anything out of blocks of graphics, creating huge worlds and playgrounds.



Although it may seem like a game, Dr Edwards was serious about the method used by Bryn Celli Ddu and used actual geographic mapping data to create the Minecraft landscapes.



It also includes the actual tomb as it was in the Bronze Age and other burial pits or mounds that were discovered in recent years.



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



According to Dr. Edwards Dr Edwards, the most difficult 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 to be part of the Minecraft world.



Dr. Edwards admitted that Bella had to show her how to do a variety of things since she uses it more frequently than I.



She eventually ratified the final version and stated that it was "very real".



Her father told her, "And she knows because she used to go down to the excavations too."



Dr Ffion Reynolds from Cadw said that it was precisely children like Bella who would most benefit from the Minecraft model.



Dr Reynolds said, "We were looking at creative ways to offer people a digital Experience of Bryn Celli Ddu." He would usually during the summer months give guided tours of the excavations to local schools.



"This was a means to keep our relationship with the schools, and offering them an opportunity to visit the website digitally."



Coronavirus restrictions have led to Cadw's facilities in Wales being closed to the public including Bryn Celli Ddu.



It also meant that, for the first time in years, people who celebrate the solstice couldn't be at the burial site in order to observe the sunrise phenomenon on the mound.



"However it did let us to access an exclusive camera crew and we've been able to film the sunrise there with 360-degree videography," Dr Reynolds added.



She stated that Cadw hopes to make the footage available in the very near future, along with opening the site back to visitors.



In the meantime, users who have access to Minecraft at home or at school can now visit the Minecraft website online - in peace.



The Bryn Celli Du Minecraft world is free to download through Hwb, the Welsh Government's teaching resource site. Also available from the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage.



For those looking for an experience that is more serious Dr. Andrews together with his colleagues have created an augmented reality app for Apple devices that will help visitors around the real site when it reopens.



New excavations at a prehistoric burial site



15 June 2019



New discovery made at ancient tomb



23 June 2017



Around the BBC



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Bryn Celli Ddu


My Website: https://www.strongcraft.org/