Minecraft update fixes lag spikes and archaeological mistake

pcgamesn.com:

Minecraft update Snapshot 23W16A is packed with plenty of changes to dig through, with changes to Trail Ruins and Sculk blocks, a new interaction for the adorable Sniffer, and a fix to one of the most frustrating lag spike issues in Minecraft. Perhaps the most fun improvement coming to the sandbox game, however, is a small but important name change to Pottery Shards used in Minecraft archaeology following feedback from a real-life archaeologist.

The latest Minecraft Snapshot reworks the game’s Trail Ruins, with additional variants to the possible structures, and changes to the amount of Gravel, Dirt, and Suspicious Gravel that appears within them. Sand, meanwhile, will no longer be generated there – a change that should prevent you wondering exactly where it might have come from, given that Trail Ruins typically appear in non-sandy biomes.

Pottery Shards are now called Pottery Sherds. It’s a small adjustment, but – as it turns out – a rather important one. As real-life archaeologist ‘ArchaeoPlays’ remarks in a YouTube video (via Comicbook Gaming), “We call pieces of pottery ‘potsherds,’ ‘sherds,’ or ‘pottery sherds,’ all with an e. Shards, in archaeology, are pieces of glass vessels or glass windows.” While they admit this is a relatively minor slip-up, they point to Minecraft’s place as a modern-day learning tool.

“If people are learning this term as associated with archaeology, it’d be great to use the actual term that archaeologists use.” As a relevant example, ArchaeoPlays recalls how, following the introduction of Minecraft Bees, children they were teaching stopped guessing that candles were made out of earwax and instead correctly assumed that they might be crafted from beeswax.

Generally, though, ArchaeoPlays says