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Pottery Sherds—often called pottery shards by players—come from Minecraft archaeology. Equip a Brush, find Suspicious Sand or Suspicious Gravel at one of five archaeology sites, and brush the fragile block to uncover its buried item. Sherds cannot be crafted. Four sherds make one Decorated Pot, with one pictured design contributed by each sherd. Bricks can fill missing recipe slots, but those sides are blank. How you break the finished pot determines whether you recover the sherds or the intact pot.
What pottery sherds are and why they matter
The official item name is Pottery Sherd; “pottery shard” is the common player shorthand. A sherd is an archaeology loot item and a decorative crafting ingredient, not a general-purpose building material. You obtain it by brushing a suspicious archaeology block, then use four sherds in the Decorated Pot recipe.
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Sherds are not craftable. If you need more, you must return to archaeology sites and brush more suspicious blocks. The final Java and Bedrock release notes describe 20 sherds distributed across the five archaeology-site categories, so early snapshot guides that list fewer designs are describing an older development state.
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Where to find Pottery Sherds
Search the five structures below. The structure determines whether the suspicious block is sand or gravel.
| Archaeology site | Suspicious block | Environment or structure notes |
|---|---|---|
| Desert Well | Suspicious Sand | A desert archaeology site. |
| Desert Temple | Suspicious Sand | The desert temple structure, including its archaeology area. |
| Warm Ocean Ruin | Suspicious Sand | Underwater warm-ocean ruins. |
| Cold Ocean Ruin | Suspicious Gravel | Underwater cold-ocean ruins. |
| Trail Ruin | Suspicious Gravel | Buried ruins associated with several forest, taiga and jungle biomes. |
The important distinction is not simply “find a desert or ruin.” You must identify the suspicious block within the structure. Ordinary sand and gravel do not produce archaeology loot when brushed.
How to get a pottery sherd, step by step
- Craft or obtain a Brush. Archaeology requires the Brush item; ordinary mining tools do not extract a buried object from a suspicious block.
- Locate an archaeology site. Explore a Desert Well, Desert Temple, Cold Ocean Ruin, Warm Ocean Ruin or Trail Ruin.
- Match the block to the site. Look for Suspicious Sand at desert sites and Warm Ocean Ruins. Look for Suspicious Gravel at Cold Ocean Ruins and Trail Ruins.
- Approach without breaking the block. Suspicious blocks are fragile. Position yourself so a misplaced attack, falling block or environmental disturbance does not destroy the block before brushing.
- Use the Brush on the suspicious block. Hold the Brush and use it on the block until the buried item is revealed and collected.
- Repeat at additional sites. Because sherds are not craftable, completing a design collection means visiting more archaeology locations and brushing their suspicious blocks.
Breaking suspicious sand or gravel is the main failure mode. A normal block break can destroy the archaeology block before its loot is recovered. Treat every suspicious block as an object to excavate, not as ordinary terrain to clear with a shovel or pickaxe.
Suspicious sand versus suspicious gravel
Suspicious Sand
Suspicious Sand appears in Desert Wells, Desert Temples and Warm Ocean Ruins. Desert sites are usually easier to inspect on foot, while warm-ocean ruins require underwater movement and careful visibility. In either case, the correct action is to brush the suspicious block rather than mine it.
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Suspicious Gravel
Suspicious Gravel appears in Cold Ocean Ruins and Trail Ruins. Gravel can blend into surrounding terrain and is particularly easy to disturb while clearing a buried structure, so mark suspicious patches before doing other excavation.
The block type is a reliable search filter: if you are at a Trail Ruin and looking through sand, you are checking the wrong material; if you are at a Desert Temple and searching gravel, you are likewise looking for the wrong archaeology block.
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Trail Ruins: the buried archaeology site
Trail Ruins are buried structures from a lost culture. Mojang lists their generation in Taigas, Snowy Taigas, all Old Growth forest biomes and Jungles. Much of a Trail Ruin can be underground, so the visible terrain may not immediately resemble a structure. Suspicious Gravel is the key block to identify as you expose the ruin.
Brushing Trail Ruins can reveal more than pottery sherds. The same archaeology site can also yield the Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper and Host armor-trim templates, as well as the Relic music disc. These items are additional reasons to excavate carefully instead of abandoning a Trail Ruin after finding one sherd.
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What you can craft with pottery sherds
Decorated Pot recipe
Combine four Pottery Sherds to craft one Decorated Pot. The four inputs become the four pictured sides, so changing even one sherd changes one side of the finished decoration. The recipe accepts Brick items in slots where you do not have a sherd. A brick-filled side remains blank rather than displaying a pottery pattern.
| Inputs used | Resulting side | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Four Pottery Sherds | Four pictured sides | Every side receives the pattern from its corresponding sherd. |
| Sherds mixed with Brick items | Pictured and blank sides | Sherd positions show designs; Brick positions produce no picture. |
| Four Brick items | No pictured sides | The pot is made without sherd artwork. |
Pottery Sherds themselves have no separate smelting, trading or crafting recipe described by the official archaeology rules. Their primary purpose is to create the visual sides of Decorated Pots.
Can you get sherds back from a Decorated Pot?
Yes, but the tool and the way you hit the pot matter. A Decorated Pot broken with a block-breaking tool returns the sherds used to make it. This lets you dismantle a display and reuse its decorated components elsewhere.
| How the pot is hit | Drop |
|---|---|
| A block-breaking tool | The Pottery Sherds used in the pot are returned. |
| Bare hands | An intact Decorated Pot drops instead of its separate sherds. |
| A Silk Touch tool | An intact Decorated Pot drops instead of its separate sherds. |
| Another item that is not the applicable block-breaking tool | An intact Decorated Pot drops. |
If you want to relocate the whole decoration, use the intact-pot outcome. If you want to change the four sides or reuse the components in another recipe, use the applicable block-breaking tool so the sherds are recovered.
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How many pottery sherds are in Minecraft?
The final Trails & Tales release notes for both Java and Bedrock state that 20 sherds are distributed among the five archaeology sites: Desert Wells, Desert Temples, Cold Ocean Ruins, Warm Ocean Ruins and Trail Ruins. The figure is the total collection across the site categories, not a promise that every individual structure contains a fixed number.
Version history explains conflicting guides. Mojang’s archaeology announcement was published on 10 February 2023 and updated on 22 March 2023. During development, the experimental feature set had added Suspicious Gravel, Trail Ruins and 16 new pottery shards. Later final release notes reported 20 total sherds, so a guide written from an early snapshot can legitimately show a lower count but is not describing the completed release.
The final archaeology rules are shared across Java and Bedrock: the same five site categories, the same sand-versus-gravel distinction, the 20-sherd collection and the same Decorated Pot recovery behavior. Differences in world generation or controls do not change the basic sherd method described here.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Common mistakes and how to avoid losing loot
Breaking the suspicious block
The most serious mistake is mining or punching first. Suspicious blocks can be destroyed before their buried item is extracted. Select the Brush before interacting and brush the block directly.
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Searching the wrong material
Use the site table as a checklist. Desert Wells, Desert Temples and Warm Ocean Ruins use Suspicious Sand; Cold Ocean Ruins and Trail Ruins use Suspicious Gravel. Ordinary blocks around the structure are not substitutes.
Assuming sherds can be crafted
There is no recipe that turns clay, bricks or other materials into a Pottery Sherd. Bricks only substitute in the Decorated Pot recipe; they do not create a pictured sherd or unlock a missing design.
Breaking a pot with the wrong item
If the goal is sherd recovery, do not use bare hands, Silk Touch or an unrelated item. Those methods produce an intact pot, which is useful for moving the decoration but does not separate its four components.
Following an outdated count
Check whether a guide predates the final Trails & Tales release. The 16-shard development note and the final total of 20 refer to different stages of the feature’s history.
A practical collection plan
- Start with accessible desert sites. Search Desert Wells and Desert Temples for Suspicious Sand while keeping the Brush selected.
- Move to ocean archaeology. Inspect Warm Ocean Ruins for sand and Cold Ocean Ruins for gravel. Bring a way to manage underwater visibility and movement, but do not replace the Brush with a mining tool when working the suspicious blocks.
- Finish with Trail Ruins. Search the listed taiga, snowy-taiga, Old Growth forest and jungle biomes for buried structures and expose Suspicious Gravel slowly.
- Store sherds before crafting. Keep newly recovered designs in a secure inventory or storage so an accidental death does not erase a hard-won collection.
- Assemble only when ready. Use four sherds for a fully pictured pot, or add Brick items deliberately when a blank side suits the build.
This route separates the two block types and reduces accidental destruction: sand-focused desert and warm-ocean searches first, gravel-focused cold-ocean and Trail Ruin searches afterward.
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Quick answers
- Where do you find pottery sherds? In Suspicious Sand at Desert Wells, Desert Temples and Warm Ocean Ruins, or Suspicious Gravel at Cold Ocean Ruins and Trail Ruins.
- How do you obtain one? Brush the correct suspicious block with a Brush; do not break it first.
- Can you craft a sherd? No. Sherds come from archaeology.
- What are four sherds for? They craft one Decorated Pot with one pictured side per sherd.
- Can a pot be dismantled? Yes. Use a block-breaking tool to recover sherds; bare hands, Silk Touch or another item yields an intact pot.
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