Minecraft Lockdown Lesson Recreates Ancient Island Tomb
Minecraft: Lockdown lesson recreates ancient island tombs by George Herd BBC News
Consider an archaeologist, bored schoolgirl living through coronavirus lockdown, and a common fascination with exploring ancient tombs.
The result? One of Wales' most important Bronze Age sites recreated - in the video game Minecraft.
It is the result of Dr Ben Edwards, from Wrexham and his daughter Bella 11.
Their Bryn Celli models Ddu on Anglesey are now being shared with classrooms around the world.
The models can be loaded into the block-building world of Minecraft and explored to find out more about the siteand Neolithic life and art.
The burial mound dates back about five thousand years. Its known as the "passage Tomb" is perfectly aligned with the sun at dawn on the solstice of summer.
More recent excavations at the site, including one by the Manchester Metropolitan University archaeologist Dr Edwards himself, revealed the burial chamber was originally constructed as a "henge".
Like Stonehenge, this was a ritual enclosure consisting 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 the historical environment service Cadw, to painstakingly recreate Bryn Celli Ddu in the video game.
It was then integrated into the educational version of Minecraft which is used across the globe to provide lessons on everything from chemistry to computer programming.
Now you can add a bit of ancient Welsh history.
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"I knew Bella had the education version of Minecraft at her school near Wrexham and I also had it at my university.
"So it was always at the back of my mind for a while, to try something in Minecraft," said Dr Edwards, who has worked on more grown-up computer models of Bryn Celli Ddu in the past.
"It was never a massive priority, but now you are in lockdown because it's the Easter holiday and you're home schooling.
"I just told Bella, 'Shall you have a go at this?'"
The game is famous for players being able to construct nearly anything out of graphic blocks, resulting in massive worlds and playgrounds.
Though it may be a game, Dr Edwards took the approach to Bryn Celli Ddu seriously, and used actual geographical mapping data to recreate the landscape for the Minecraft models.
It also includes the tomb itself in the manner it could have been constructed in the Bronze Age, and alongside it, burial mounds and pits discovered in the past few years.
The rock art found from Bryn Celli Ddu is also included in the game along with a model of what the Neolithic home might have looked like in the vicinity.
According to Dr. Edwards, the hardest thing to construct was not the burial mounds, but the house.
"It was planting the trees," he said.
Each one had to be individually "planted" and tended by Bella and her father, as 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.
In the end, she was in favour of the final version and said it was "very realistic".
Her father said, "And she knows because she used to go to the mines as well."
Dr Ffion Reynolds, who is from Cadw said that it was precisely children like Bella who would benefit from playing with the Minecraft model.
Dr. Reynolds said, "We were looking at ways to offer people an experience in digital form of Bryncelli Ddu" and he'd typically be out in the summer providing guided tours of the excavations to local schools.
"This was a means of continuing our relationship with these schools, while also providing them with a way of 'visiting' the site online."
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 that those who celebrate the summer solstice weren't able to meet at the burial site to observe the dawning phenomenon that occurred there.
"However, it did allow us access to a special camera crew, and we've been able to film the sunrise there with 360-degree filming." Dr. More Reynolds said.
She stated that Cadw hopes to make the footage available in the near future, along with reopening the site to visitors.
Meanwhile, those with access to Minecraft at home or at school can now access the Minecraft website online - in peace.
The Bryn Celli Ddu Minecraft world is free to download 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.
If you're looking for an experience that is more serious Dr. Andrews and his coworkers have created an augmented reality app for Apple devices that can help guide users around the actual site once it reopens.
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