Pottery Sherds are collectible archaeological artifacts in Minecraft that can be used to create uniquely patterned Decorated Pots. Finding them requires exploration, a Brush, and a careful eye for Suspicious Sand and Suspicious Gravel.
There are currently 23 different Pottery Sherds in Minecraft, and collecting them all will take you through deserts, oceans, buried ruins, and Trial Chambers.
On Blockhead Odyssey, Pottery Sherds can be collected for decoration, traded with other players, or used to create pots displaying your favorite combination of designs.
This guide covers Pottery Sherds and archaeology as they function in Minecraft Java Edition 26.1.2.
Pottery Shards or Pottery Sherds?
You’ll often hear players call these items Pottery Shards, and there’s a good reason for that.
They actually were called Pottery Shards when Mojang first introduced them during development of Minecraft 1.20.
In Java snapshot 23w16a, Mojang officially changed the name from Pottery Shards to Pottery Sherds.
The unusual spelling isn’t a typo. Sherd is an archaeological term for a broken fragment of pottery, so the name fits Minecraft’s archaeology system perfectly.
If you’ve been searching for “pottery shards,” you’ve come to the right place—they’re just officially called Pottery Sherds now.
When Were Pottery Sherds Added to Minecraft?
Pottery Sherds were officially released as part of the Minecraft 1.20 Trails & Tales Update in June 2023.
Trails & Tales introduced Minecraft’s archaeology system, including:
- Brushes
- Suspicious Sand
- Suspicious Gravel
- Trail Ruins
- Decorated Pots
- Pottery Sherds
The original archaeology system included 20 different Pottery Sherds, distributed among five archaeological sites: Desert Wells, Desert Pyramids, Warm Ocean Ruins, Cold Ocean Ruins, and Trail Ruins.
Minecraft 1.21: Tricky Trials later added three more:
- Flow Pottery Sherd
- Guster Pottery Sherd
- Scrape Pottery Sherd
That brought the total to the 23 Pottery Sherds available today.
How to Get Pottery Sherds
Most Pottery Sherds are obtained through archaeology.
You’ll need to locate a structure containing either Suspicious Sand or Suspicious Gravel, then use a Brush on those blocks to carefully extract the item hidden inside.
The three Trial Chamber sherds work differently. Flow, Guster, and Scrape appear on Decorated Pots generated within Trial Chambers. Break the appropriate pots to recover the sherds used in them.
Crafting a Brush
Your essential archaeology tool is the Brush.
Craft one using:
- 1 Feather
- 1 Copper Ingot
- 1 Stick
Place them vertically in a Crafting Table:
Feather
Copper Ingot
Stick
Now you’re ready to start excavating.
Suspicious Sand and Suspicious Gravel
The heart of Minecraft archaeology is recognizing Suspicious Sand and Suspicious Gravel.
They resemble ordinary Sand and Gravel but have subtly different textures.
Use your Brush on a suspicious block and the buried object will gradually emerge.
Be careful!
If a Suspicious Sand or Suspicious Gravel block is broken or destroyed instead of being successfully brushed, the artifact inside is lost.
This makes archaeology very different from ordinary mining. Slow, deliberate excavation is much safer than tearing through a structure with an enchanted shovel.
All 23 Pottery Sherds and Where to Find Them
The original 20 Pottery Sherds are divided among five different archaeological locations. Each location has its own selection, meaning you’ll have to travel if you want a complete collection.
Desert Pyramid — Suspicious Sand
Desert Pyramids, also commonly called Desert Temples, contain Suspicious Sand.
You can uncover four Pottery Sherds here:
- Archer Pottery Sherd
- Miner Pottery Sherd
- Prize Pottery Sherd
- Skull Pottery Sherd
Don’t assume the familiar treasure chamber at the bottom is all there is to a Desert Pyramid. Archaeology added an excavation area containing sand and Suspicious Sand.
Take your time and inspect the site carefully.
Desert Well — Suspicious Sand
Those little Desert Wells that once seemed almost pointless suddenly became considerably more interesting when archaeology arrived.
Suspicious Sand found at a Desert Well can contain:
- Arms Up Pottery Sherd
- Brewer Pottery Sherd
Neither of these sherds is available from the other original archaeology sites, so collectors shouldn’t pass up Desert Wells.
Warm Ocean Ruins — Suspicious Sand
Warm Ocean Ruins contain Suspicious Sand.
Three Pottery Sherds can be discovered here:
- Angler Pottery Sherd
- Shelter Pottery Sherd
- Snort Pottery Sherd
Warm Ocean Ruins have another particularly valuable archaeological prize: Sniffer Eggs can also be discovered in their Suspicious Sand.
That makes these ruins worth investigating even after you’ve collected their three sherd designs.
Cold Ocean Ruins — Suspicious Gravel
Cold Ocean Ruins use Suspicious Gravel instead of Suspicious Sand.
Four Pottery Sherds are associated with them:
- Blade Pottery Sherd
- Explorer Pottery Sherd
- Mourner Pottery Sherd
- Plenty Pottery Sherd
Because underwater excavation can be awkward, come prepared for extended time beneath the surface.
Trail Ruins — Suspicious Gravel
Trail Ruins are Minecraft’s largest dedicated archaeological excavation sites.
Their Suspicious Gravel can produce seven Pottery Sherds:
- Burn Pottery Sherd
- Danger Pottery Sherd
- Friend Pottery Sherd
- Heart Pottery Sherd
- Heartbreak Pottery Sherd
- Howl Pottery Sherd
- Sheaf Pottery Sherd
These sherds are part of the rarer archaeological loot available at Trail Ruins.
Trail Ruins can be much larger than they initially appear. Most of the structure is buried underground, and the few blocks visible at the surface can be only the beginning.
Excavate systematically rather than simply digging downward.
Trial Chambers — The Three Newer Sherds
Minecraft 1.21 added three additional Pottery Sherds:
- Flow Pottery Sherd
- Guster Pottery Sherd
- Scrape Pottery Sherd
These are different from the original archaeology sherds.
Instead of brushing them from Suspicious Sand or Suspicious Gravel, look for Decorated Pots generated inside Trial Chambers. Some of these naturally generated pots display the Flow, Guster, or Scrape patterns.
Break those pots to obtain their sherds.
Trial Chambers are substantially more dangerous than Minecraft’s traditional archaeology sites, so don’t arrive equipped only with a Brush and good intentions. Prepare for combat.
Pottery Sherd Collector’s Checklist
There are 23 designs to collect:
- Angler
- Archer
- Arms Up
- Blade
- Brewer
- Burn
- Danger
- Explorer
- Flow
- Friend
- Guster
- Heart
- Heartbreak
- Howl
- Miner
- Mourner
- Plenty
- Prize
- Scrape
- Sheaf
- Shelter
- Skull
- Snort
A complete collection requires visiting all five original archaeology site types as well as Trial Chambers.
What Are Pottery Sherds Used For?
Their primary purpose is crafting Decorated Pots.
A Decorated Pot requires four ingredients arranged in a diamond or rhombus pattern in a Crafting Table.
You can use:
- Four Pottery Sherds
- Four Bricks
- Or any combination of Pottery Sherds and Bricks
Each ingredient represents one side of the resulting pot.
A Pottery Sherd adds its picture to that side of the pot, while an ordinary Brick produces a blank side.
That means you don’t need four Pottery Sherds to use one.
If you have a single prized sherd, you could combine it with three Bricks to create a pot with one decorated face and three blank faces.
Alternatively, use four different sherds to create four different pictures around the pot.
Decorated Pots Can Store Items
Decorated Pots aren’t merely decorative.
Minecraft Java Edition 1.20.3 expanded their functionality so that a Decorated Pot can hold up to one stack of a single item type.
Players can interact with a pot while holding an item to place that item inside. There is no inventory GUI to open like a Chest or Barrel.
Decorated Pots also work with several redstone components:
- Hoppers can insert and extract items.
- Hopper Minecarts can interact with them.
- Droppers can insert items.
- Comparators can detect how full a pot is.
This gives Decorated Pots some interesting possibilities in redstone builds in addition to their obvious decorative uses.
Breaking a Decorated Pot
Decorated Pots have unusual breaking behavior.
Breaking a Decorated Pot with a suitable block-breaking tool without Silk Touch causes it to shatter, returning the Bricks and Pottery Sherds used to craft it.
This is important for collectors: crafting a rare Pottery Sherd into a Decorated Pot doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve permanently consumed the sherd.
You can recover it.
Breaking a pot in a way that doesn’t shatter it allows the Decorated Pot itself to be recovered instead.
Decorated Pots can also be smashed by projectiles, causing them to shatter and release their contents.
Archaeology Tips
A little preparation can make sherd hunting much easier.
Bring extra Brushes. Large Trail Ruins can contain plenty of Suspicious Gravel, and you don’t want to run out of Brush durability halfway through an excavation.
Watch before you dig. Suspicious blocks can be easy to overlook among ordinary Sand and Gravel.
Don’t let suspicious blocks fall. Suspicious Sand and Gravel are fragile. If the block is destroyed, you can lose whatever was hidden inside.
Clear ordinary blocks carefully. When excavating a Trail Ruin, expose suspicious blocks gradually instead of tearing through everything at full speed.
Bring inventory space. Archaeology produces plenty of other items besides Pottery Sherds.
Prepare for underwater work. Ocean Ruins are much easier to excavate if you have equipment or effects that help with breathing and visibility.
Gear up for Trial Chambers. The three newest sherds come from an environment designed around combat challenges, not peaceful excavation.
Pottery Sherds on Blockhead Odyssey
You don’t necessarily have to personally uncover every sherd you want.
Blockhead Odyssey has a player-driven economy, and Pottery Sherds can be valuable collectibles and trade goods.
Check /market for Pottery Sherds offered by other players.
You can also use /order or place an order through /market when you’re looking for a particular sherd and would rather pay another player to locate one for you.
That can be especially useful when you’re missing a specific design from a structure you haven’t been able to find.
Of course, archaeologists may prefer to complete the collection the hard way.
Start Your Own Archaeological Collection
Pottery Sherds turn structures that might otherwise be overlooked into destinations worth seeking out.
A complete collection takes you from tiny Desert Wells to buried Trail Ruins, beneath the ocean, through Desert Pyramids, and eventually into the dangerous halls of Trial Chambers.
Once you’ve collected them, you can display the designs on Decorated Pots, use those pots for storage, trade your duplicate sherds, or work toward assembling all 23 designs.
Grab a Brush, head into the wilds of Blockhead Odyssey, and keep an eye out for anything that looks just a little too suspicious.
Need Help?
Most of the information in this guide is applicable to
vanilla Minecraft – Java 26.1.2.
However, this guide was made specifically for
Blockhead Odyssey SMP – mc.BlockheadOdyssey.com
For more assistance, join us on Discord or explore our other guides!
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