Long-Delayed Minecraft Feature Finally Releasing Soon

Minecraft players could've been archeologists around a year and a half ago had that feature been added to the game then, but Mojang delayed it out of the Caves and Cliffs update. Mojang said at the time that it'd decided to put archeology and other features "on the backburner for now," but now, the time has come for archeology to be added to the game. It's coming in the 1.20 update, and we've already gotten a preview of what the feature will look like.

Archeology in Minecraft calls for a bit of a gentler hand than some players sometimes take, so no clearing out blocks at random to find hidden treasures. Instead, you'll have to head to deserts and look for a new block type called "suspicious sand." After finding some, you'll use your new archeological tools to safely extract whatever secret the block is hiding.

"While you're digging, look out for a new block: suspicious sand! As the name suggests, you need to tread carefully here," Mojang said about this new feature. "Or rather, brush carefully. Along with new blocks and a general air of mystery, archeology also brings a new tool: The brush. Break it out, and carefully brush your block of suspicious sand. This allows you to extract whatever is hiding within, which can be anything from pottery shards to random objects! "

If you find four similar pottery shards, you can piece them together to create a unique pot to decorate things with. There was also some language in Mojang's post about the topic that suggested there are more secrets in the sands for Minecraft archeologists to uncover than just pottery shards.

This feature isn't ready to go live just yet, but you'll at least be able to test it out before it's fully ready to go. To do so, you'll have to opt into either the Bedrock beta or the Java Snapshot so that you can test out what's to come. Mojang should share an update later on whenever the 1.20 update with its archeology features is ready to roll out.