Minecraft's Ancient City Interpreted by a Real Archaeologist pt. 2
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- If you want to know how we got here, check out the previous episodes on the refurbishing of the Ancient City here (also trail ruins): • Minecraft Archaeology
Today I return to examine the remains of the Ancient City post sculk removal, and talk about what I think the Ancient City is, building by building. There are so many things to cover in the interpretation of this site that I could fill several hours worth of videos on it. However, I'm deciding to stick to the larger themes and ideas in the interest of time. If you all are interested, I could do a more in depth breakdown of the more nuanced and theoretical stuff at a later date.
Previous archaeology series:
• Minecraft Archaeology
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Disclaimer
(for all you Arch types out there watching this)
I am a professional archaeologist with many years worth of field work under my belt in the American Southwest. The information presented here is based on my professional and academic experiences. Not all archaeology is done the same everywhere and, as such, experiences differ. The information here is overly simplified and presented as a form of entertainment with the intent to lightly educate as well.
I guess what I'm saying is: if you're an archaeologist watching this, this is just for fun, don't be a jerk.
World seed: -5486010189755585855
World is in survival mode, with non hostile mobs. With no weather, no mobs, and always noon. cheats are on so that I may add items to my inventory for use.
Shoutout to Havenhand for the idea of a classroom setting (Dr. Havenhand)
Music by Tunetank.com
*yes the armor has mending on it, you can stop telling me*
Keep in mind that interpretation is just that... interpretation. I am basing this off of the available evidence in front of me for this particular site. Oftentimes, the same evidence can give different interpretations, and that's just how archaeology works sometimes. We can never know if archaeology is 100 percent correct and we can never know if its fully wrong either (in most cases)
I suspect that the Greek style buildings are some kind of political building. Hence the need for transparency from the public and privacy in the building. The fact that it has curse of binding could be the curse is a punishment.
@@Untrustedlifeinteresting
We need Daskalos to watch matpats (GameTheory's) depiction of minecraft lore
@MrAlcem33 he is already aware of it but disagrees
Theory about the asymmetry of the central assembly: could it be built that way to evoke imagery of raw, unshaped caves? Stalagmites, unworked stone, and such, to provoke an emotional reaction to supplicants or other visitors.
i love how i watch both a geologist and a Archaeologist talk about rocks and ruins in minecraft. what even are my interests at this point?
The REAL Minecraft education edition XD
Is that Gneiss Name? Love that guy
Check out Rufus Atticus too, he's an evolutionary geneticist at ASU and sometimes applies his programming & data analysis skills towards understanding Bedrock edition. And some of the other Minecraft archaeologists who collab with Daskalos, they're also great.
Actual Minecract education version 😂😂😂
imo its important to think about what the sculk was and why it is found in the ancient city. sculk absorbs experience, which can be obtained from killing mobs. sculk also stores the experience, so you can get it back by breaking the sculk. experience is generally interpreted to be some sort of soul essence or memories, so sculk would then be some sort of thing that stores your soul and memories. if we assume that the citizens of the ancient city could not respawn, they may have thought of the sculk as a way to live beyond death, and the curse of vanishing would be a way to take your possessions with you into the sculk. this would also mean that bottles of enchanting take on more meaning, possibly actually being the result of a ritual to capture someone's soul and keep them somewhat alive, or to make them portable so you could deliver them to the sculk. you probably wouldnt want to absorb their soul accidentally while trying to give them to the sculk. it would also make a lot more sense why there is sculk in all of the chests (aside from its growth in the city), as it might have been used as another way to preserve people, if you broke their experience bottle into a catalyst, then took the sculk that formed from it. also sculk only grows from absorbing experience, so the sculk in the city couldnt have just grown over time. a lot of people would have had to die to form all of that, possible from the people just living there, or from a battle, or even the raiders we know later visited the city.
the sculk would also be quite a deterrent to living in the city, so it may have only been used for sculk worship. most of the buildings in the city are for warriors or priests, so it might have been a place of pilgrimage, possibly to put people into the sculk. it would also make more sense as to why it is underground - it was built underground, as the sculk only forms in large quantities there.
If they harvest sculk with hoes, they could use hoes like ceremonial (or even regular) weapon, to harvest souls and lives
Upvoting so @Daskalos sees this and possibly incorporates this info into future videos on this topic!
Wow. That is an INCREDIBLE interpretation supported by a LOT of evidence in loot tables and structures. I love it!!
Edit: I was excavating some cold ocean ruins when I found a “Mourner” sherd and remembered it depicts the Warden, so there’s even more evidence!!
@johnsychev2046 A hoe does look an awful lot like a reaper scythe, so this tracks....
for entity's that don't respawn (everything exempt the player) curse of binding would likely be a major punishment or a major honor,
if its used to bind low end equipment such as pumpkins or Lether it would be a punishment as you cannot equip safer gear,
but if used to bind the BEST gear it would be a major honor like saying ' this armor is given to you until you dying breath' type of thing
Maybe like a warrior would wear curse of binding armor as like a oath to protect the city till death
@Chance_Rice A Binding Vow?
On top of that, we have to consider how curse of binding could potentially serve some sort of defensive purpose. While you can’t dislodge armor without breaking it in a strictly game-mechanical sense, perhaps for these people they used binding as a method of making sure their gear couldn’t be removed in battle - to stop parts from falling off or being removed by enemies to get attacks in.
You don't know if other beings other than the player can't or couldn't respawn, only that the ones we see die don't seem to. The existence of things like a respawn anchor may suggest that is a possibility
yeah, but not taking the armor off in any occasion, I dunno...
reminds me of Tychus from starcraft 2
@2:07: Translation: Everyone called it bellyrub at the digsite but I pinned a post-it on my screen reminding me to ctrl+f the report before handing it in and replace all occurences with purple building
Hey now...
I think regeneration potions are important to note that aren’t regular regen potions but regen II potions. Meaning that a ghast tear was used to make it and that glowstone dust was added to make it more potent.
Also lots of soul sand fueled technology. They must have either been able to go to the nether, or purchase from someone who could.
They also use Basalt, which is only found in the nether
Basalt is found around geodes in the overworld
@@daskalosBCE iirc, only Smooth Basalt is found around the geodes - some Ancient Cities structures use Polished Basalt, only found in Nether Bastions or craft from regular Basalt
Ah, my mistake
Props to you for bringing up the original definition of cult! I am a world builder and cult with its original meaning is very useful to describe different minor religious/spiritual practices so I enjoy people using the word cult in the original meaning.
Its what I do, haha! I prefer that meaning versus the one it has acquired in modern times
My theory? I think the pinks are shops. Selling items to warriors, to people who want to give offerings and likely food. The broken discs can easily just be wear and tear from passing time and anything like food likely would have decayed entirely by now (except golden apples because they're gold)
And then I pressed play and that's literally what you said. Lol
haha!
@daskalosBCE This is a great series btw
19:37 one thing to consider, although we dont know *when* the zombie plague became a thing, the mausoleiums could have been guarded to ensure the dead stay dead. In our world, there are historical occasions of people fearing vampires, though most of those are overblown and misunderstood by the general public
In an ancient city, note blocks are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, so that pressure plates in the food storage are probably a trap.
They are extremely dangerous now, but not necessarily back when the city was in use. We cant assume the Warden was always hostile
@@daskalosBCEI feel like we can, because if ðe Warden wasn't hostile, ðere would be no need for wool anywhere in ðe City.
that's not necessarily true, for a blind creature that has acute hearing and is revered, it would be considered common courtesy to tread lightly.
The wardens might not have been hostile to its worshippers in the past- But i think there is a possibility of the city being quiet, in order to appease the wardens, that would make it very easy to hear any invanders sneaking on food supplies.
@@PatshraygKawlinse-o4b
I don't think people would have build such a civilization there if the Warden was hostile at the time. The wool only covers the aisles thus people would be constantly in danger whenever they went somewhere else.
Something that just occured to me: I wonder if the music discs were used to direct/distract the warden. That could potentially explain why there'd be fragments in towers and residential buildings. The towers should be tall enough the warden can't hit people at the top, and using music in buildings along the street to direct the warden could be helpful
The purple alter has a table type place where it’s “belly” is I feel like it would have been the place where bodies were put as a sacrifice type place (or even a funeral place) that would fit with the warden itself as that’s where the souls are.
At around 20:00 you mention “what if villagers could build” what an interesting concept, like if you let your stone masons out of a trading hall, if you can fulfill their needs for a long enough time, they add a block to a coordinate and over time build a structure, and once they have finished construction drop a rare loot in a chest somewhere in the building. The higher the mastery, the bigger the build. It would incentivize players to not trap them in 1x1 blocks
Last time I heard about this was a mod called "Millenaire". Which uses a very old version, now. Villages would develop over time by acquiring resources to do the work.
The first thing through my mind when I saw the purple "bellyrubs" structures was "Podium", it looks like a raised platform for speaking on, or displaying things.
Maybe they are funerary altars? The deceased is laid upon them during a wake or other ceremony to conduct the person's soul to the afterlife, aka: join the Warden. I believe that the Warden is the warden of souls, or a ferryman figure to take them to the Nether to join the others in the soul sand valleys.
It could also be a sign of warning, given how it is outside the walls. It looks akin to a Warden's head rising from the skulk, akin to marking an exclusion zone with radiation or explosive symbols.
The city feels a lot less like a city and a lot more like a Temple Complex or something of that nature.
Maybe a holy city, along the lines of Vatican City.
It seems like there was a bureaucratic/priest/researcher class, who I think might be one and the same based on the small amount of actual dwellings. The back entrance to the lab section of the gate complex leads from the side of the city with the admin and guard buildings whereas the front entrance is obviously where pilgrims would come to reach the main altar on the top level and is located on the side with the residential and commercial buildings. I think the administrative buildings being so open could represent some idea of transparent governance where the people could watch the bureaucrats do their work, the divisions seem like office cubicles.
The ancient city definitely seems like a pilgrimage site of some description. A few residential and commercial buildings, a food storage, and then a ton of altars connected by walkways that are way too large and impressive for the size of the settlement itself, suggesting a lot of outside foot traffic. The items like horse armor, trident enchantments, compasses, and nether items suggest a lot of outside trade and exploration. The amount of mausoleums relative to the population suggests people likely would bring their dead to rest in a holy site guarded by the warden (his chest literally is the entrance to the building). It was likely a pilgrimage site for another civilization who revered the warden and the permanent population were all either priests/bureaucrats/researchers, guards, or traders/explorers based on the items present, only people necessary to the functioning of the temple complex. They lived on the residential front side of the gate complex and worked on the back side. I would also suggest that the walkways being wool and the prevalence of swift sneak suggest that the city was inhabited contemporaneously with the warden himself, which would imply a need to stay silent and another reason to have only necessary personnel living on site. Perhaps the books and charcoal that were found everywhere were used to communicate in writing between priests with a vow of silence for example.
Going based off your theory about the guard towers - in the game you can craft a spyglass from copper, and amethyst. What do you find in the towers? Amethyst shards. Perhaps if they really were guard towers meant to watch over the "tombs", the extra amethyst was to repair or make new spyglasses.
The way everything in the city appeared to be neat and organized in its heyday compared to its modern day ruins due to overgrown skulk reminds me funnily enough of what has happened with kudzu in the US south. At first it was imported for agriculture and farmers were able to keep it in check, but due to over planting it became an unstoppable invasive species. The fact that some of those chests have hoes means they were harvesting it, either through farming or just trimming it to keep it under control. But at some point the skulk grew to a degree that it wasn’t safe to be around anymore and the city was abandoned. And the fact that skulk grows from death could point to the city having a rather violent end.
Given that the Warden uses echolocation to navigate, perhaps the asymmetrical design of the portal fence was to confuse it by making the sounds become chaotic?
33:10 I have a bit of speculation on that- The chaotic architecture contrasted with the symmetrical walkway and warden altar could be a symbolic representation of the contrast between the world ruled by the Wardens, in its orderly quiet and lack of agressive mobs, and the outside world, with its chaotic noise and diverse groups of aggressive mobs, like creepers, zombies, and skeletons.
Your videos have really gotten me to start thinking about what implied story is being told by the structures in Minecraft - even the older ones that were pretty clearly not "intended" to have a story in mind.
Like, take the Strongholds. A few odd things come to mind - *nothing* in the architecture, design, or materials of a Stronghold looks anything like the End Portal itself, nor like anything found on the other side. There is no trace of End Stone or Purpur in the architecture, and the material culture of the Stronghold builders seems to have been all stone bricks, oak planks, and iron bars and tools. This strongly suggests to me that the End Portal and the Stronghold were probably built by different people, very probably at different times.
In addition, the Stronghold builders seem to have had very little contact with the End itself, or at least by the time we see the remnants of the Stronghold virtually no traces of End contact are in evidence. The sole evidence that there was any contact at all comes from the very rare occurrence of Eye smithing templates (made from End stone) in the chest loot table. In addition, though the connection between the Endermen and any other possible End cultures (such as the Purpur Tower Civilization) remains unclear, we can certainly say that the Strongholds were not built to accommodate Endermen comfortably, given the two-block-tall doors.
(On the other hand, the presence of things like horse armor and seeds in the Purpur tower chests strongly implies either that the End looked very very different nearer to the time the towers were built, or that they had active contact and possibly trade with the Overworld at some point.)
Intriguingly, the Stronghold chests (but only those found on the so-called "altars") can also contain Otherside music discs, indicating some tenuous connection to the Ancient Cities as well...
Ive actually thought about this for a bit, and i gotta wonder if the stronghold was built around an already established end portal to study it and the things that may come out.
Aren't Strongholds invested with Endermites?
@@green11ndysilverfish, and they only infest overlworld stone, so they were probably some sort of local plague that was used for some unknown purpose, since there is a spawner in the stronghold right next to the portal
Portal placed above lava pool. Or lava pool under the portal?
If lava pool and stronghold was built after the portal, than it looks like protection mechanisms. If someone will appear from portal, it will fall in lava, and if it won't work there are spawner nearby.
This is not a dungeon for a player, it is dungeon for someone who will appear through the portal🤔
All this seems like the people who built the Stronghold did not really want anyone using the portal. The iron doors, silverfish spawner, lava under the portal frame...
Could lime be some kind of judicial building? The eclectic collection of things in the chests could be fees, fines, confiscated property, whether ill-gotten gains waiting to be returned to owners or the settlements of lawsuits waiting to be distributed to rightful owners? The multiple stalls could be so multiple suits could be brought before judges or magistrates simultaneously, and they're up stairs so bailiffs could control access while court is in session?
possibly
Pink could also be workshops for alchemists/engineers. Skulk feeds on XP, so putting on some armor and slugging a few potions before whacking at low-level mobs could be how they farm skulk.
Then, they harvest the skulk (using a hoe) and bring it home to extract the XP from it, turning it into bottles of enchanting (players can't craft bottles of enchanting, but cleric villagers ostensibly can, so the ancient city inhabitants could have figured out the recipe)
Then, they use those bottles of enchanting to enchant the books, armor, & apples (to sell or to give away or to use)
The amethyst shards could be a redstone experiment. They can be used to make Calibrated Skulk Sensors, so they could be the leftover remains of their workshop.
The echo shards could also be made there. Possibly from "imbuing" amethyst shards with skulk (same icon shape). Or perhaps theyre a byproduct of creating bottles of enchanting (compressed skulk).
So my theory is that it could be some sort of scientist? An alchemist's lab/workshop? The ancient city version of a cleric villager?
The 'warden head' symbols everywhere are actually in Minecraft legends and are in the villages in that game , so possibly that warden head symbol is actually an ancient symbol
You do realise the lore implications of that?
Legends might be (soft) canon to vanilla (java/bedrock edition) minecraft's backstory... I THINK. Again, pure speculation
@@victoralexandervinkenes9193 From what i've heard, the Minecraft Novels and Legends were intended to be in a single official canon universe with the Main Minecraft Game. However, the Minecraft main game by itself also is another single intended canon world, so both a analysis of Main Minecraft alone, and Main Minecraft + Legends + Novels are canon!
It seems to be the symbol of the well of fate as it is prominently chiseled on the edge blocks, which would imply the inhabitants are trying to (or succeeded to) bring the hosts back.
Both the pants and the hoe you found on the first pink building have mending, so it's impossible to know how much they were used.
an aspect i missed! :)
I have noticed something while watching the video, it seems like the buildings are built the wrong way around, the entrance of every building is facing out of the walkways not towards them, this is either a but or maybe they had a reason to not have their entrances face the road.
This might also explain why you have to go around the gate in order to enter the lab since it is consistent with the rest
I found that interesting as well, the way they face away from the walkways must be significant, otherwise, why do it?
Because it would be noisy to have the entrance face the road. And easier for an angry Warden to wander in. The Warden doesn't discriminate friend from foe, it attacks the closest source of noise.
Having the entrances set away from the main path could be a defense mechanism.
Glad you addressed the soul sand technology, it seems rather significant that it is so tightly woven through their society, from ceremonial ritual of their highest order down to civil utility to light all of the structures with intentional design. While other societies of the overworld have some access to the nether, whether it be blaze rods for potions or glow dust that the witches posses, the residents of the Ancient City seem to take it much further.
I’ve been loving the videos so far. I know that it’s been stated that Minecraft *does* have some sort of lore, but that it’s kept behind closed doors, only for Mojang employees to see. This feels like some sort of glimpse into it.
True, I meant that Minecraft doesnt have explicit lore or official lore thats released to the public
Really enjoying these videos! on the server i play on, i have been repairing and excavating the ancient cities myself, its so fun to imagine what they would have looked like before they were destroyed by sculk, some of the structures have me confused as to what they could have been!
Well I hope I can give you some ideas to work off of! :)
What if the lime buildings are hospitals
26:20
I think it's important to note that the downstaits chests appear to be at the back of the building.
Throughout the entire city, we constantly see buildings with their entrance facing away from the centre of the city. The chests in the lime buildings face the city, so I'd argue that this is the back of the building (when viewed from the entrance). Idk maybe that's important
I love that the analysis of the proximity of the guard towers and two-story buildings that generated near each other- it really goes to show that in archeology, context is EVERYTHING!
my brain immediately said "altar" when i saw the purple as well. HOWEVER, it's more apparent to me that this is a tomb or a crypt, specifically for the Warden, and the "legs" are just the remains of the surrounding mausoleum
and i think the gated central area is asymmetrical because it already existed, and the culture built the city (and their religion) around it
I just opened my copy of the world and took out the belly. Its solid deepslate all the way through, not even an air pocket
@@daskalosBCE my only saving grace now is that the Warden petrifies after death -_-
Possibly! haha! It was a good guess, at least I thought so. It was a good enough guess that it made me open a copy of the world to check, so I think THAT is one heck of a saving grace
@@EpicMuttonChops well, we do see it vanish into the stone when it gives up on chasing people, so thats that (althought its probably more likely that they just bury underground in some dormant state)
I think it's important to rethink what would have been valuable to whoever inhabited the city. For us, we see diamond armour and hoes and think they're fancy because as players we largely inhabit the surface, but for the inhabitants they leave diamond ore unmined in the floor. Coal on the other hand cannot be found naturally at these depths, and would require trade or 'mining' in higher y levels to attain. Also notice that despite we found coal in chests in buildings from part 1, they don't seem to use coal to light anywhere up, but instead opt for soul lanterns. This is why I think coal would have been symbolic of wealth for these inhabitants.
Absolutely correct, and something that is hard for non archaeologist to wrap their minds around
I really like this series. A take more grounded in the way archaeology is done in real life to explore and contemplate past structures is probably exactly what Mojang was hoping for with the addition of archaeology, in the first place.
I was thinking that the purple one with the pants and bottles of enchanting and the used hoe could be from a farmer who farmed skulk for xp to sell. The leggings could be for protection and such out in the dark caves, but be unused because they never came in contact with mobs. The Warden kills them to create the skulk in the first place, so it isn't a far stretch to believe it would be farmed for profit/ residential use somehow.
The other purple structure could be a shop that sells other items, farmed in other ways, or gathered from explorers selling their wares on the way into the city for currency to use within. As of right now, echo shards can only be obtained in those chests, and all we can make with them is the recovery compass that points to your death point, so they're op and mysterious, but unfarmable to us. I would like to assume the Portal, when lit, had some function, and possibly led to their ability to either find or craft those shards, since we have no means to do so, ourselves. Either that, or they had a particular way of processing skulk to create such things. They bear the same colour pallet as the other things in the Deep Dark.
The eclectic mess of items in both 2 story green buildings is so weird. It's definitely hard to discern what their purpose was. The charcoal and bones could mean meals of some kind were prepared there... but that's really my only thought on that.
The redstone being activated by eating the apple on the altar, and needing such a ridiculous route to get to the entrance after, tells me that something weird was being done around it. Who knows what kind of weird, but definitely some kind.
Looking forward to other stuff you get up to.
Such a cool series. You’ve done a really awesome job dissecting the cities. Some notes though.
1. You were spot on with the civilization worshiping death in Minecraft the reason that the undead exist is because of an ancient civilization known as “The Nameless Kingdom” are theorized to have constructed the ancient cities but as well as the desert temples.
2. So the altar in the center is most likely not a face of the warden. First of all the warden does not have ears but antennas and that symbol is more close to a symbol in a minecraft spinoff “Minecraft legends” on an object known as “the Well of Fate”
3. If you noticed pieces of an item called disc 5 keeps reappearing and that is no accident. The disc is integral to understanding what this city what and let me tell you when you play it there WON’T be music but something very interesting.
so just some followups:
1. I dont think they necessarily worshiped death so much as had a different understanding of it. Kind of like how the Egyptians saw death as a later part to your existence.
2. We dont know if the way the Warden is now, is the way he/she/it was before. Its possible that at a younger stage in the Wardens life, he/she/it had no antennae, and had ears instead.
3. I have listened to the disc, there is no evidence to suggest that what you are hearing is from the city. Just like songs on the radio arent depicting the city in which you reside, or every city in the world. We cant even say for certain when the disc was manufactured
@@daskalosBCEHave you ever played discs 5, 11 and 13 at the same time? There's a trick to it that lets you hear something way beyond what any of those individual discs give you. (You need 3 jukeboxes for it)
You need to count up from 0 to 15. On five, put disc 5 in the first jukebox. On eleven, disc 11, and on thirteen, disc 13.
(The reason you continue to count until 15 is because that makes sure you don't mess up the timing for the last one. "Eleven, twelve... and thirteen!" There's usually an unconscious delay before the last one.)
It's some real creepy stuff. I don't know for sure if it would fit with this archeology series, but it's for sure something cool to listen to!
@@daskalosBCERegarding point #2 - aren't reverent depictions often different from reality? Symbolic, stylized, made more attractive, pulled from imagination? We don't know how the Warden was, but even if it looked the same, it could be portrayed in different ways.
One thing that really confuses me: the big warden head (and other smaller ones) in the gate complex is pretty similar to warden, but it has those small square ears and warden has "ears" shaped like horns, not square-ish ones. This may hint that in the past warden looked different, and may it's been corrupted by sculk
So two things that you may find interesting.
1. I think you're on the right path with suggesting the warden may have looked different. We cannot assume the warden looks as it does now just like we cant assume the warden acted back then the same way it does now.
2. Early concept ideas for the warden actually had those round shaped ears.
I suspect that the Greek style buildings are some kind of political building. Hence the need for transparency from the public and privacy within the building. Maybe a courthouse or senatorial meeting area.
Possibly, i had thought of bank, but i realized my view of banks are influenced by my modern upbringing
Wood parts are not present anymore, and what we think as columns can easily be support beams, and argument about “transparency” could be wrong.
And idk why but it looks a little like barracks
Btw the “warden head” of guard towers probably not the warden head, bc it probably had wooden roof over the support beams
The lime buildings have a balcony. I'm not sure why, but it seems like something to mention.
Hey Dakalos. One of the key users for sculk is to gain xp for enchanting. Enchanting can be a job description. Some sites with skulk and hoes could be part of enchanting set-ups. The books and book shelves would have dissolved over time.
I agree. This was likely the purpose of the sacrifices. Converting mobs to sculk through ritualistic sacrifice. Then converting sculk to echo shards, enchantments, and possibly bottles o enchanting.
9:20
Harvesting skulk gives you experience. You need experience to enchant gear and books.
If the person who lived here did enchant and sell things for a living, it would make perfect sense to have some skulk in their chest. It would also explain why the hoe is the only used tool in the chest
Yes, exactly! And sculk is generated by sacrificing mobs near a catalyst.
The disorder/asymmetry seen in the "gate" structure may hint further to death and decay. They revere/worship the warden and with it death.
Further the interpretation as a gate is also interesting in context with death. Did they see the warden and death as a gateway to some afterlife.
That's what I'm thinking, too. Maybe the Warden is a sort of ferryman figure or grim reaper to take the souls(which are stored in it's chest) to the afterlife.
3:05
I think it would be possible that the "legs" are the base of pillars that would conect to a roof.
I think they seem to be too far to be part of warden.
And the shape of the warden looks to me like a place to burn offerings or some kind of similar sacrificial action (but it would be hard to affirm that without any burn remains).
41:19
To me, the "lab" looks more like a teaching place, you have some basic components and circuits being displayed, as if to explain how they work.
Maybe as secret knowledge for the priests, considering it is hidden.
Curiously, there are no calibrated sculk sensors present in the city, even though the inhabitants collected the two items necessary to craft them in their stores. Using them in the central auto-activated light would have made a lot of sense.
white honestly feels to me a bit like a take out spot or a sort of shop with a deep freeze. It's mainly due to the note blocks at the entrance. Like it's telling someone managing the deep freeze that there's someone up top ya know? Cyan also feels both guard tower yet a bit wizard towery with how there's stuff for what seems to be enchantment and exp farming. maybe enchanting was a common practice in the city and the towers were where the guards kept their cool enchanted stuff in what may be a community chest. wizard guards. lime green feels very organized enchanting school. maybe it indicates that enchanting was mainly an art for people who have tangible power in the city or had some religious connotation. could also be that one was for more religious work and the other was for the more martially inclined. Name tags also prevent mobs from despawning. That likely doesn't actually impact the lore, but it's very interesting they have that. maybe the ancient cities are mainly for religion and education? The way to enter the lab feels very initiationy just as a side note. maybe education was associated with religion?
Something interesting about the potential guard towers, with one that has the armor trim... Armor trims require a secondary material to trim with. One of those materials you can choose from is amethyst shards. Perhaps the amethysts were both the guards' payment, and a way to trim their outfits. Maybe very well-paid and revered guards would deck out all their armor with amethyst trims to show that they are the best and the eldest of the group, or something to that effect. Other materials you can use aren't often seen in the chests, either. With Amethyst geodes only appearing rarely [I think one or two are in the city itself], it'd be a worthy 'payment' they could have used, and maybe back in their time, those geodes were even rarer, making someone with a fully trimmed suit of armor considered very powerful.
I love the videos a lot, love the interpretation, I'm a big fan and thanks to you I'm having inspiration for my own art project.
I would love to see the trial chambers next for interpretation after the ancient city
Im glad i could inspire!
I wonder if Echo Shards are Amethyst Shards that have been somehow infested with Sculk. Amethyst has some connection to sound, being able to transmit vibrations when used with Sculk Sensors, and can be used to calibrate a Sculk Sensor.
While it's clear by their depictions of the warden that he held some position of reverence or other significant cultural interpretation, given the prominence of sacrificial tools, I suspect their sacrifices hold relevance beyond simple worship. It's clear by their use of enchantments that they are well-versed in the practice, and collection of experience in bottles implies that they have a system to obtain these levels (ie: animal sacrifice). Similarly, the prevalence of hoes strongly suggests they farm the skulk, which is rich in experience. Whether they knew the role of the catalysts in converting xp to skulk or not, the sacrifices serve to expand the skulk, which would seem to be beneficial if they ritualize both the action and collection of the experience.
I question to myself why they would need such an abundance of enchantments. Perhaps the utility of swiftsneak is common among the residents of the ancient city, and thus, a portion of their society would be responsible for the sacrifice and harvesting of the skulk for that exact purpose. It would seem fitting that swiftsneak would be useful for the society, since they found it useful to develop the enchantment in the first place, and would probably use it to aid in personal convenience when operating near the skulk where the warden might prove to be a threat.
From that perspective, it makes sense for the society to associate the warden with death, however, it is also likely they view him in association with some skulk more as a crop, making him more of a "god of harvest", with the harvest referring more to the collection of experience rather than that of food. In this regard, it is a provider.
This is the part where I do mad headcannon speculation:
I believe that the inhabitants worship the warden, for one reason or another, but that they view it as the provider or servant of the skulk mass as a whole. They perform ritual sacrifice to the warden and receive skulk as a bounty, which they harvest and use to create quality of life enchantments (particularly, swiftsneak). I speculate, then, why it would appear their society collapsed, and I personally think they are too developed and accustomed to the warden for the skulk to be the one to cause it. In fact, I believe the society was safer in the skulk than outside of it, considering the skulk wards off other harmful mobs, which would explain why they would be so willing to structure society around such a dangerous entity. My headcannon is that the people finally escaped into the dimension of the warden, and left behind all their infrastructure in the process. The gateway is a hub of transportation to the new dimension, and the city is established to equip people for entry. Eventually, the society became accustomed enough to the new dimension that they transported their society fully, and cut ties with our comparatively hostile world.
Something that explains all the diamond hoes is that hoes break skulk faster; like how shovels are the tool for dirt, hoes break skulk faster than, say, picks or axes for instance
15:28 the size of this structure says to me that this is some kind of institutionalized food distribution center, possibly signaling that the Ancient City's old government might have been more communist in nature, which could also have to do with the inaccessibility of food that deep underground. Perhaps the main goal of the explorers was to discover a plant which could be easily grown at that depth or an easy mode of transport of food from the surface down into the city?
I think collective Ownership of at least the Food this deep underground is realistic, even though I disagree with the usage of communism as that is a very recent thing in our world
The diamond leggings at 8:14 have the Mending enchantment on them, so the fact they don't show signs of wear doesn't necessarily mean they were never used. Perhaps the hoe in that chest was used to harvest exp from sculk to repair the leggings! I mean, it's a possibility!
The Official Walkway doesn't have wool on it to help hide the approaching party from the Warden. That seems intentional. Could that have been a defence feature or something to do with some kind of ceremony?
Are there any real-world societies the Ancient City reminds you of? Or is that something you'd rather not get into, for one reason or another?
Could there have been other buildings made from less durable materials around the city? I suppose with it being so far underground, buildings fully or even mostly made of wood seem improbable.
That's quite a few questions, I hope you don't mind too much. 😅
I LOVE this series, it's legit THE most interesting Minecraft content I've ever seen! Thank you so much for making it! I would absolutely be interested in a more in-depth breakdown of this topic, by the way!
Finally got to watch! I loved all of this, its all SUPER interesting!
I wish I could’ve turned the weather off like that when I did my field school in Ireland lol
Question:
Could the asymmetry in the gate complex potentially be due to the structure being maybe built in a rush? Like they needed urgent protection from something?
Or maybe could it have been built by several people who weren’t as well managed at the time?
Or could it have been maybe the first structure built and at the time the civilisation didn’t have the skills to make it perfect? And then it wasn’t changed later unlike other buildings due to the religious significance of it?
Dont forget the other possibility: They wanted it to be asymmetrical, that asymmetry is a feature of it.
@ i did forget that, i tend to imagine asymmetry as unintentional. I will try to not think like that in the future.
:)
There could also be a symbolic or spiritual purpose to the asymmetry. "Nothing built by human hands can rival the perfection of the warden" etc. Or the number and spacing of the crenulations could have some significance understood in their culture that we don't know of.
So I had a couple of thoughts when I saw the name tag and curse of binding book: one was for prisoners with life sentences so you literally can’t remove your bindings unless you die, another was for slaves and the third was for animals, the last one also works with the horse armour, this all of course predicates on the assumption that they aren’t constrained by game mechanics the same way the player is.
Of course nothing indicates that they owned slaves so I think that’s probably the least likely.
Hoes are the tool of choice for harvesting skulk. Whoever had that hoe alongside the skulk and enchantments likely was harvesting skulk themself! Skulk, when harvested, drops XP which could be used for enchanting and repairs with mending.
16:50 Look at it, even the Crenelles!
17:17 The towers also strikingly resemble the towers we see in the Trail Ruins.
21:10 Those are Barracks for housing soldiers, allowing for rapid deployment to the Battlements and Towers when under attack, the missing wall signifies damage received during a siege.
I think the giant warden head was a portal to the nether probably and that the ancient city as we know it is just the center of a larger set of structures or a small part of it. The nether in Minecraft we know from the creators is supposed to be a representation of hell which means the afterlife. There’s adventurers gear scattered all over the place and enchants everywhere, so maybe those residences/graves were of those who went to the nether? It would explain the large administrative presence, the lack of other residences (for safety due to proximity to the portal) and the guard towers positioned within the city as opposed to on the outside of it like a normal defensive position.
Maybe this civilization was either wiped out by some nether related event like a piglin incursion or since they worshipped death so much they made a voluntary exodus to hell through the portal. Maybe they ARE the piglins
25:00 I would argue that that cave wall that obstructs the view of the "guard towers" wouldn't be there, meaning that both limes would also be watched alongside the tombs (okay, 2 minutes later you mentioned exactly this lol, but I wanted to get my thoughts out there)
Coal makes me think of writing, maybe it's just some form of pencil that degraded, but the lack of paper/books is very weird, if this was some archive what would they be using to archive? It being so open could mean that all the books simply degraded (which is very sad to think about, and all that remained are the enchanted ones because like the golden apples, they're magic) but then why not try and write in stone? We use Smithing templates just to apply armor trims but they could also pass on other kinds of information, like an official decree that's meant to last for a VERY long time and that's what one of the "guard towers" had, but none of those remained in this archival of sorts?
Being so open and easy access they could've just been stolen, there are signs of pillaging or at least later visits by people that build just like the illagers/pillagers, but then why leave the Notch Apples?!
The golden apple on the first floor of the greek building is behind stairs, so if it’s some kind of bank to keep supplies safe then perhaps there was a door behind the stairs that led to the chest, which has since decayed.
Additionally, I could make the argument. We already think the wooden towers were added later. What's the likelyhood that the "Gate" predated the rest of the city. So there was an original Fort around the 'Gate'. Then the City was built around that ?
The asymmetrical wall makes me think that maybe the wall was either built at a different time from the other parts of the city, and/or was perhaps built in a hurry.
Its also possible that the asymmetry is intentional
3:00
but, are these warden heads, or miniatures of the central gate? because if we consider that the warden seems to have come from the gate, doesn't that create a chicken and egg scenario?
but then, that would require the conclusion that the gate is a portal (in a world that has other kinds of portals like the nether and end ones)
We can’t assume the warden came from the gate, just as we can’t assume the warden always looks like the way it does now
Just a thing to note, but the diamond hoes could very well also be a warriors tool if you consider the sculk. A warrior's job might be to keep the sculk at bay, which is dangerous job requiring weapons and armour due to the warden, but also a hoe to remove the sculk efficiently.
Not to mention that they could very well be their weapons of choice as well? There are instances where a particular civilization's military were affected by their culture, so the hoe's could also have served as weapons. Hoes also have longer reach if I remember correctly (unless I'm confusing it with a mod) which is very in line with something like a halberd. They were weapons of war, they were used to fight fires, and they have some pretty impressive reach. So it could possibly be something like that as well?
These videos are really cool! With all my mortal fear while in the deep dark, i hadn't even noticed how the structures reflect the warden itself or how the loot corresponds to the places it's found in. I like the Ancient cities a lot and my next project will be to restore the one i found near my house. This video will help with that too
A hoe in an inventory with warrior-esque paraphernalia, could be a warrior who does their own planting on the side, or a farmer who is often times conscripted for guard duty shifts on the off season?
It wouldn't be far fetched to say in a community of limited numbers, some if not many jobs may be shared by many members of the community, also as part of the societal structure and/or cohesion. Just imo
The asymmetry of the central complex reminds me of how fortified structures tend to be built and rebuilt after damage. It also has very thick built walls and some kind of faux-crenellations, and is made out of a different material than the immediately adjacent pathways (and more closely resembles the structures you identified as guard towers). Could it at one time have been a fortified structure that was then turned into some kind of ceremonial site?
me: checking MC_oda's channel for his overview of the lab to continue the story and finding nothing recently
"i've been Duped, Bamboozled, Smeckledorfed even!"
Haha! Its coming. I never said he had a video up, just to check his channel
I had a thought about the gate complex and walkway- Could it be a sign that the big warden head and surrounding walls were built much earlier, and the grand approach was added at a later point? The asymmetry could be because the structure is much older (and possibly repaired or altered in minor ways over the years with more focus on having a wall there than making it perfectly symmetrical), but it was too important to do a full remodeling at any point.
*Too important to remodel with the assumption that remodeling would take a lot more effort than itwould for a player, and/or cut it off from important use for too long, and the asymmetry still works for their purposes
Or if it is a much older structure that's been maintained then there could be a level of respect given to the original build even though they have since developed more symmetrical architecture styles/techniques
2:30
In my ancient city restoration, I turned this into a functioning donation alter, with a shallow pool of water that the inhabitants would toss their currency in. I also swaped out the deepslate main piece for one made with prismarine, with a thin gold trim around the rim of the water.
There was a water stream underground that went into the city center.
My plan was to eventually make the city a part of my player home, these little alters would be item dumps. I was going to put a small item sorter system in the main structure. Or have the items get sent up to my Dark oak mansion above.
Roughly 27:00, I think those official buildings might be a form of courthouse and jail? Curse of binding can cause vision impairments (pumpkin being stuck to your head) which might be a form of retaliation against those that break rules, and a courthouse and places where people settle disputes you'd likely want to be private to avoid rumours and such. Not to mention the potential guard towers for aggressive / rowdy criminals (people who break rules atleast) would make a lot of sense, especially seeing as they're ONLY by these official & private buildings. Plus a courthouse and jail are VERY important to maintaining whatever order the city wants to keep, no matter what type of order that is.
My first thought about the asymmetrical patterns of the "gate complex" was that it could be imitating/symbolizing an organic structure like sculk. The giant Warden head has a different stone type used in organic-like, patterns too, going from out to in (could just be degradation).
For the pink building, i think those are not post holes, but maybe fallen walls. The chest looks like a skulk farmer. They use the hoe to harvest, they use the books to enchant weapons in order to spread the skulk. Dark stuff
Perhaps lime green building were dedicated to the guards lieutenants - they are close to the guard towers, and enchantments like the curse of binding and the curse of vanishing might have been a sorf of a ritual and an oath taken by the guards, something like "I'll wear this armor until the day I die and I'll take it to my grave"
4:52 I think a better word for this would be a "shrine"
My wild speculation for the pink structures is that they're a means for the central administration of the city, which is clearly highly organized based on the scope and organization of the city as a whole, to exchange resources with more independent "adventurers" in a soct of contractor relationship. I think the isolation of the city would preclude the development of intercity trade or a mercantile institution, while the danger of the environment would incentivize smaller numbers of elite explorers to venture out and gather materials. The unity in the purpose of nearly every other structure seems to indicate to me that not a lot would happen without the direction of the central planning authority of the city, which makes it seem more likely that the merchants who operated the pink structures acted on behalf of the city's administration rather than as independent shopkeeps.
One thing that intrigues me is that the people built statues and monuments venerating the Warden BEFORE they summoned it. This indicates that summoning the Warden was always their intended goal, not just a destructive accident. But the question remains: how did they know about the Warden if they had not summoned it yet? Perhaps the Sculk is more sentient and intelligent than we thought. What if, somehow the Sculk managed to influence the people in the city into summoning it? Maybe the “other dimension” was in fact a prison that the Sculk wanted to escape👀. The devs said that the Warden is like a physical manifestation of the Sculk that awakens to defend the Sculk itself. This indicates the Sculk is aware and alive. Why would the people of the ancient city be so bent on summoning the Warden into the world? They didn’t know much about it at the time, all they had was Sculk. Opening the portal seems to have let something out, rather than them wanting to go in. So maybe the Sculk that the people had produced with their sacrifices came alive and influenced their culture, so that they worshipped the Warden and wanted to open whatever portal they built in the center
Im not sure what evidence points to them building this stuff before the warden was there
@ the disc has a Warden sound, then a sound of breaking, then it ends abruptly. This implies the city and its people were destroyed once whatever it was came out of the portal. They can’t build the monuments after they’re dead
We don't know when the disc was recorded or deposited so we cant make assumptions based on that, nor can we assume anything came out of the portal in the middle of the city. It isn't lit, and there's no way to light it. Not saying they didn't do it, but I think your jumping to conclusions based on poor evidence. Also, its much more probable that the inhabitants, or those that built the structures, knew of the warden and hence it was already there in the world. Remember we cant assume the warden was always hostile simply because its hostile now
@ the Warden is an undead mob, and it does not occur naturally like other mobs; it spawns when summoned by the Sculk. On the disc, there is the a striking portal sound, soon followed by the roar of a Warden (the sound it makes when attacking). Then, the record ends suddenly. It all suggests that the Warden (or multiple Wardens) were the reason that the city was destroyed (as the Sculk remains but all of the people are gone, likely dead). Since evidence points to them revering the Warden, it only makes sense that their massive portal would have to do with something Sculk related (the portal is engraved inside a Warden head monument). Just because WE can’t light the portal, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been lit by the city inhabitants long ago. We also can’t build with reinforced deepslate, but the ancient people did. We know that creatures dying powers and spreads Sculk, this is how the game mechanic works. So it can be assumed that the animal sacrifices that the people made were producing Sculk and/or spreading it. Sculk has spread all over the city, implying ALOT of death has occurred, in order to feed such a large volume of Sculk. It all adds up; something happened that destroyed the city and killed its inhabitants, leaving behind the city remnants and a bunch of Sculk, which spawns Wardens when agitated. In the game files, the central structure was called “mysterious portal”, so it is definitely some sort of portal.
The warden spawn when summoned by the skulk now, but again, we cant assume how the warden worked in the past based on how it works now. Also, we do not know when the disc was recorded, for all we know it was recorded the day before the player spawns into the world. You're making a lot of assumptions with no solid evidence. We can not assume that the wardens are the reason the city was destroyed because there's no evidence of it. For all we know the "Destruction" is just plain old degredation, which does have a precedent in the real world. I've seen many ruins that are missing chunks of wall, and none of them are the result of monsters or even anything outside of good ol fashioned mother nature.
The portal being skulk related is another jump to conclusion with no evidence. Yes, the structure around the reinforced deepslate looks like the warden head, but that doesn't mean the portal is skulk related. Heck, the previous inhabitants could have found the reinforced deepslate already there and decided to construct around it for all we know.
Yes, creatures dying spreads skulk, but that doesn't mean the inhabitants are the reason for the spread. While Oda and I were working on the city, a goat fell into the hole and spread skulk.
So, what im getting at, is that you are jumping to alot of conclusions that are founded on shakey ground, and thats just not how archaeology works
33:00 those are battlements, the that lack of consistency may indicate rushed repairs or construction.
Love this so much. I'm gonna watch all your other mindcraft videos now and await more!
The guy in the pink building foraged sculk with a hoe which yields exp when breaking, but needed the armour, weapons/trident enchants, and sneak enhancement to combat the warden.
If you think about it having a bunch of shops in the ancient cities make sense, they must have access to loads of materials. Lots of ore, and sculk gives a lot of xp for enchanting.
I think the 2 story lime green buildings are some kind of hotel, they're on the border of the city, there's a reception and 2 rooms. Maybe there were wooden walls there. Only problem is that there are chests in only one of the rooms, instead of one in each
Interesting thought, I would expect a hotel to have more than 2 rooms, perhaps they didnt see many visitors?
4:29 the corners sorta resemble
skulk sensors. Is this a depiction of the warden coming up from the sensor ?
In regards to the pink structures, I agree they are potentially commerce. In a city seemingly geared toward veneration, could they be places to purchase offerings?
Thats a definite possibility, though i would like to see more overlap with the chests in the red structures
Most interesting video as I've been curious about the Ancient City.
My theory as to why theres's sculk everywhere, is that it came from all the dead ancient people. Taken in by the sculk catalysts. The reason there are no more ancients that they all experienced death simultaneously.
What if the sculk catalysts, with the absorbed souls and experience, they turned into wardens? Purposeful mass self-sacrifice? And now wardens guard the mausoleums. You can also find rare skeleton heads in many places in the city.
The music fragments when put together do play sort of recording which sounds like mass soldiers marching.
regarding the guard towers near the tombs. don’t forget that this world has zombies! perhaps they watch over the tombs to make sure there are no zombie outbreaks, or to make sure no evil doers can start a zombie outbreak. this has some interesting overlap with the person who suggested that skulk storing experience could be akin to the skulk storing a persons soul, or their soul passing onto nature. maybe the dead who cannot pass their soul onto the skulk become zombies.
In my head the people knew about the Warden before they saw what it looked like and would worship it by building shrines and such. Maybe the reason why the shrines look like the Warden is because it communicated with them through Skulk, which we know can happen because Skulk Catalysts are what triggers the Warden.
The centre gate is like a portal, when offerings are made the Warden rewards them by sending more Skulk and Echo Shards through the portal, then once enough offerings were made and there was enough Skulk for the Warden to survive in the overworld it came through the portal where it proceeded to destroy the city and anyone that would try to loot it.
This last part is very speculative and not based on anything but I think the survivors may of enchanted the city and the Warden with curse of binding, so that way it wouldn’t be able to leave.
At least not until some jerk comes along, grabs a few Skulk and somehow manages to capture the Warden in a minecart and bring it up to the surface, likely dooming the overworld.
If you read this, keep in mind, the diamond leggings in one of pink buildings has mending enchantment, so there is a chance they could have been used, but got repaired, because of mending
8:26 The leggings have mending on. Is it possible that the owner repaired them and then never had the chance to use them again?
Also, considering skulk feeds on death, is it also likely that the reason the city is overrun by skulk is because the people met some unfortunate mass death that wiped them out, thus allowing the skulk they cultivated to breach from its originally maintained areas to encroach across the city? Gives it almost a "veil of death descended upon the city" vibe.
Amazing series i am very interested in Minecraft lore but woth lime building what if they are not just adminstration offices but hospitals snd the bones and golden apples and the open space may be required for the treatment of the sick also the privacy as those quarters maybe for them the patients
excellent possibility
Maybe the above chests for medicine and the bottom is for charity that people can offer meanwhile they also function as a collection point for the patient's family or relatives of the patient dies in the hospital
I have an alternative theory based on my own exploration of Ancient Cities and your videos, as well as the Redstone video done by MC Oda.
The Ancient City is a Necropolis.
When you examine the structures, layout, and consider the location, it doesn't seem the cities would be well suited for large-scale habitation. While it is true that towns and cities of ancient cultures do become buried after they are abandoned (like the Trail Ruins or Underwater Ruins), that is not what we find here. You do not have to excavate and remove years of sediment buildup to uncover the city because it was constructed underground to begin with. The most likely case is that a natural cavern was found, expanded, and then the city was built. Since there is virtually no natural food found underground, at least not in quantities sufficient to feed a city, and we see no evidence of farming or other agriculture, there could not be a large population continuously inhabting the area.
The reason for the layout and various buildings is to give the spirits of the dead a place to inhabit with familiar things from life. Many cultures believe the afterlife to be a mirror of the physical life (the Egyptians, for example). This seems to be the case with this civilization (we will call them the Ancients), as the tombs and masoluems show evidence that tools, weapons, treasure, food, and other offerings were brought to honor the dead.
Your conclusion concerning the ritual nature of many of the buildings and the identification of both priestly and archival evidence is on the mark. It would seem that only priests and their attendants would actually live in the Ancient City permanently or semi-permanently. Family and friends of the deceased would bring the body to be consecrated and interred, as well as offerings to give to the priests, some of which the priest used in rituals (the burned remains and broken items found in some chests) and some of which were meant to 'pay' the priests (food, valuables, etc) which are found in the priest living quarters and the food preservation building.
This pilgramage to properly lay someone to rest also explains the existence of the tents sometimes found in Ancient Cities. It is also possible that a person might journey to the Ancient City to pray to their ancestors for special guidance or to bring them good fortune. This would explain the lesser ritual buildings, though those could also be indicative of social status differences as well.
I also think you are on the mark concerning the existence of a cultic nature around the Warden, with images of it all over the city, most especially at places were the dead are prepared to rest or their graves. Given the evidence, I believe the Ancients did worship a god/goddess of death, and the Warden might be seen as the Avatar of Death, since it is made up of the dead (you can clearly see bones in the texture) and has souls of the dead apparently animating it. We know sculk absorbs living matter, and if you subscribe to the idea that XP is actually spirits/souls, then sculk is likely seen as a physical manifestation of Death as well. This would explain why Ancient Cities are only found at the very bottom of the world - it is literally viewed, again as many real cultures understand, to be the Underworld, the place of the dead.
Speaking of the Warden, sculk, and a cult of the dead, why are there sculk sensors and screechers all over the city, as well as carpeted/wool pathways? Because the Necropolis is a place of holy silence. Up in the overworld, the cacophony and chaos of life rages on - but here in the depths, the dead slumber in peace. To disturb that peace is sacrilege, and the Avatar of Death (Warden) punishes those who desecrate his realm. With the city now abandoned for some time the sculk has taken over parts of the city, but it's clear that during the time it was in use the sculk was there, and even harvested and used. The sculk and Warden may represent rebirth, both the physical body being transformed by sculk as well as the spirit into a new life through the Warden.
Concerning the central "Portal," it seems more appropriate to call it a temple or shrine. The redstone room beneath it is a special area where only the highest priests are allowed. It is no accident that access to the room is given by eating a golden apple right in front of the primary Idol of The Warden. The room itself may be for preparing only the highest ranking members of society for burial (the table/shelf room does look like slabs at a mortuary) and/or may be a place where only the highest priests learn secrets of the cult (the redstone contraptions).
I have heard that some people think the ruined building (what you have marked as orange) used to be farms, but that's just what I have heard
I want to point out that when reviewing the pink structure, you see the chest has a pair of diamond pants and immediately assume "Not used" because it is not missing durability.
That pair of leggings has mending on it, so it actually could have been used and repaired, especially considering the chest ALSO has XP bottles in it, which could be used to repair, and a used hoe, which could, and liekly was, used to break skulk, which also drops repairing XP when broken.
2:58 Perhaps not a belly, but a chest? Considering the opening on the front of a Warden, thus offerings on the altar are symbolically placed in said chest opening.
18:12 Especially considering one has iron armor (far more practical than the diamond armor we've been seeing) and the other has an armor trim (perhaps to be applied to a commanding officer's gear to identify them at a glance?)
I think pinks might be guard posts and they contain a mix of equipment (sculk related blocks, armor, enchantments) and personal items (valuables, plain books, music disks)
why are you assuming that all disk fragments where deliberately destroyed, and not just randomly broken while the city was abandoned?
because there are whole discs in the chests as well
The second lime building could be some sort of law enforcement, maybe a police headquarters?
The Curse of Binding could be a punishment, similar to marking/tattoo on criminals to shame them.
Similar thing for the name tag.
Enchanted apples, horse armour and the enchanted book could be for law enforcers.
I wonder, since the hoe had curse of vanishing, how commonplace that was and how many items are "missing" because of it? We'll never know
Regarding the lime buildings - when you were describing them as being private due to the internal walls, and then corrected that due too the openings on the outside, I feel it is quite possible that said openings were filled with something that hasn't survived - otherwise they seem like too much of a fall hazard. Paper screens, lightweight wood lattice, windowglass?
Seems like there could be multiple stages of building. The small (older?) ruins and also large fully intact buildings. Could also explain the odd uneven structures around the center and the more symmetrical and grand walkway extending out, like the center was built first and they expanded out getting better as they went?
Ancient City. Place of religious importance. signs of Death being a core value of the city. City overrun with skulk; which feeds on death. City guarded by an unkillable "warden". City underground.
Is it a necropolis?
I'm not willing to assign it that title. There's too many things that seem to have functions outside of what would be expected of a necropolis
@@daskalosBCE holy shit, Senpai noticed me...
Ha!