Notes

Minecraft: Lockdown Lesson Recreates Ancient Island Tomb

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



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



The result? The video game Minecraft has recreated one of Wales the most important Bronze Age sites.



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



Their models of Bryncelli Ddu on Anglesey are now being shared with schools around the world.



The models can be loaded into the block-building world of Minecraft and explored to learn more about both the site, Neolithic life and art.



The burial mound dates back approximately five thousand years. Its called the "passage Tomb" is in perfect alignment with the sun at dawn on the summer solstice.



Recent excavations at the site, including those conducted by Dr. Edwards, Manchester Metropolitan University archaeologist, showed that the burial chamber was designed as an "henge".



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



Dr Edwards has utilized the digs, in conjunction with researchers from the University of Central Lancashire and Wales the 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 around the globe to teach lessons in everything from chemistry to computer coding.



Now you can add ancient Welsh history to your collection.



From cromlechs and graves - Wales ancient burial grounds



The history of the world: The Bryn Celli Ddu stone



Why the prehistoric built so many hill forts?
Minecraft servers


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



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



"So it was always in the back of my head for a while to do something in Minecraft," said Dr Edwards who has worked on other more sophisticated 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, so you're homeschooling.



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



The game is renowned for being able to construct nearly anything out of graphic blocks, creating massive worlds and playgrounds.



While it might be an entertainment, Dr Edwards took the approach to Bryn Celli Ddu seriously and utilized actual maps of the world to recreate the landscape for the Minecraft models.



It also includes the tomb in the manner it could be from the Bronze Age, and alongside it are burial mounds and pits that were discovered in the past few years.



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



Dr. Edwards said that the most difficult thing to build was not the house , but the burial mounds.



"It was planting the trees," he said.



Each of them had to be "planted" by Bella and her dad as part of the Minecraft world.



"Bella was required to show me how to do a variety of things, as she was more reliant on it than me," Dr Edwards confessed.



She later endorsed the final version and stated that it was "very real".



Her father said, "And she knows because she used to go down to the excavations also."



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



"We were looking for creative ways to provide users with a digital experience of Bryn Celli Ddu," Dr. Reynolds who will normally spend the summer months giving guided tours of the excavations to students from the region.



"This was a means to keep our relationship with those schools, and offering them a way of 'visiting' the site digitally."



Coronavirus restrictions mean that Cadw's facilities across Wales have been 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 couldn't gather at the burial mound in order to observe the dawn phenomenon there.



Dr. Reynolds stated that access to the sunrise was possible through 360-degree videography.



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



In the meantime anyone who has access to the internet at home or in school can now play Minecraft digitally - and in complete safety.



The Bryn Celli Du Minecraft world is available for free download from Hwb the Welsh Government's website for teaching resources. Also available from the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage.



If you're looking for an experience that is more serious, Dr Andrews and his coworkers have created an augmented reality application for Apple devices that will help users around the actual site when it reopens.



New excavations at a prehistoric burial site



15 June 2019



New discovery made at an ancient tomb



23 June 2017



Around the BBC



BBC Radio 3: The New Generation Thinkers



Bryn Celli Ddu


Website: https://minecraft-servers.me/