What Are Pottery Sherds in Minecraft?
Pottery sherds are unique decorative items introduced with the Trails and Tales update in version 1.20. They allow players to craft decorated pots featuring ancient patterns that tell stories of a bygone era. You can find these sherds by brushing suspicious sand or gravel blocks at archaeological dig sites like desert temples, desert wells, trail ruins, and ocean ruins. Each sherd bears a distinct symbol — from the Archer and Skull to the Prize and Heart patterns — making every decorated pot a personal piece of history.
However, collecting a full set of sherds can be a real grind. The drop rates from brushing are not guaranteed, and you might spend hours hunting for that one elusive pattern to complete your museum display or add a specific touch to your base. This is where clever community solutions step in to enhance the vanilla experience without breaking the game’s balance.
Why Duplicate Pottery Sherds?
In survival mode, the archaeology system is immersive but unforgiving. You often find only one or two copies of a rare sherd, leaving you unable to craft multiple decorated pots with the same design. While you can mix and match sherds on a pot, many builders crave symmetry or want to line a hallway with identical pots. Duplication offers a fair, resource-based method to expand your sherd collection without resorting to creative mode or commands.
The vanilla game provides no recipe to copy sherds, but a popular data pack fills this gap elegantly. By combining one pottery sherd with four bricks in a crafting table, you receive an exact duplicate of the original sherd. The recipe respects the survival economy: bricks are crafted from clay, which you must mine, smelt, and shape, so you still invest effort. This small tweak transforms sherds from finite trophies into a renewable building block for your creative projects.
Introducing the Duplicatable Pottery Sherds Data Pack
The Duplicatable Pottery Sherds data pack, originally inspired by historical pottery recreation techniques shared by creator ArchaeoPlays, gives players a straightforward way to multiply their sherd collection. It works seamlessly with both Forge and Fabric mod loaders, and you can drop it into your world’s datapacks folder without any additional configuration. Once installed, simply open your crafting interface, place the sherd you want to copy in the center slot, surround it with four bricks, and pull out the duplicate.
This approach feels native to Minecraft’s crafting logic. It echoes other duplication recipes like copying banner patterns or maps, where you spend extra materials to get more of something rare. The data pack doesn’t add new blocks or entities; it only tweaks the recipe book, keeping your world lightweight and multiplayer-friendly.
How to Install the Data Pack
Getting the Duplicatable Pottery Sherds pack into your game is simple. You can download it from Modrinth, where the developer maintains the latest versions beyond 1.20.4. Once you have the file, place it in the datapacks folder inside your world save. If you’re on a server, upload it to the server’s world datapacks directory and reload. For players who prefer a streamlined setup, this mod can be easily installed via the foxygame.net launcher — a convenient, flexible, and modern Minecraft launcher where you can download mods right from the menu. That way, you manage everything from one place without digging through folders manually.
Crafting Recipe and Mechanics
The duplication recipe is as intuitive as it gets:
- Place the pottery sherd you wish to duplicate in the center of the crafting grid.
- Put one brick in each of the four cardinal slots (top, bottom, left, right).
- Leave the corners empty.
- Collect the duplicated sherd from the output slot.
This consumes the four bricks but preserves the original sherd, so you can repeat the process as long as you have enough clay. The recipe works with every sherd variant, including the twenty unique patterns added in 1.20 and any future ones that follow the same item tag. Because it’s a data pack, it automatically adapts to new sherds introduced in updates, provided the pack is maintained.
Benefits for Builders and Collectors
Decorated pots are more than just storage blocks — they are storytelling devices. With the ability to duplicate sherds, you can:
- Create matching pairs of pots for entranceways or symmetrical builds.
- Fill a museum with complete sets without spending dozens of hours on RNG.
- Use specific patterns as markers for different storage systems, each pot holding a category of items.
- Trade rare sherds with friends on a server without permanently losing your only copy.
The data pack respects the spirit of archaeology by keeping the initial discovery exciting while removing the frustration of limited supply. You still need to find that first sherd through exploration and brushing, so the sense of accomplishment remains intact.
Compatibility and Community Feedback
Since this is a data pack and not a full mod, it doesn’t alter game code in a way that conflicts with most mods or plugins. It has been tested on both Forge and Fabric environments, and users report smooth performance on servers running Paper or Spigot with datapack support enabled. The creator encourages feedback through their Discord community, the Bar and Grill server, where you can suggest new recipes or report issues.
The inspiration behind the pack came from real-world archaeology, where researchers often create replicas of ancient pottery to study manufacturing techniques. By translating that concept into Minecraft, the pack adds a layer of educational charm — you’re essentially “recreating” historical sherds using raw clay, just as ancient potters did.
Conclusion
The Duplicatable Pottery Sherds data pack solves a genuine pain point for Minecraft’s archaeology system without overshadowing the thrill of discovery. By allowing you to craft duplicates with bricks, it gives you creative freedom while keeping resource management relevant. Whether you’re a builder striving for aesthetic perfection or a collector aiming for a complete set, this small addition makes your survival world feel more generous and less grindy. Pair it with other quality-of-life data packs, and you’ll have a tailored experience that respects both vanilla balance and your time. Next time you unearth a rare sherd, you can confidently build that decorated pot hallway you’ve always envisioned — brick by brick.