Minecraft: Winners and Highly Commended

Winner: Alina (y4) Home-schooled - Temple of Poseidon

In Minecraft, I created the temple of Poseidon and the surrounding buildings. The temple is a place where ancient Greeks worship the God of the Sea. It is a magnificent building with columns and decorations, as ancient Greeks cared about their gods and wanted to make them happy. So the temple is a house worthy of a God. It is a source of pride and identity for the local community, showing the city’s wealth and power. The statue in the middle of the square is where people would gather and bring gifts. They also hold public meetings and festivals in the square, which makes it an important place for the locals. The temple also attracts visitors from around the country. People would travel for miles to worship Poseidon, bringing gifts and praying. The buildings nearby are rest houses and market stalls. The market stall would sell shoes and food for travellers. They can rest in the houses nearby to gather their strength for the way back home, talk to each other and share the local news. The temple is an important centre for the community, because it represents what the ancient Greeks believed in and cared about.

Highly commended: Ilya (y4) Home-schooled - Gaul Village

My Minecraft creation was inspired by the TV series Asterix and Obelix. I created a Gaul village around 50 BC. The campfire is in the centre of the village, surrounded by tables. This is the place where the community gathers for celebrations and special events. It is an important place where the community is built, because they can share food, sing, dance and be together. The village has a barrier around it for protection as it was often attacked by the Romans. The river flows through the centre, which is a source of water and fish. Children would play in the water, and women might gather to wash the clothes and share the local news. There is a fishmonger, black blacksmith and a druid. They are important for the community as they provide the source of food, tools and healing. The chief of the village lives in the treehouse next to the river; the other houses are smaller and simpler, as he is the ruler of the village. It is a small and friendly community where people live very closely together, raise children together and help each other. I would like to live in a community like this.

Winners: Andy and Aidan (y7) Bishop Thomas Grant School - Roman City

We created a Roman city in Minecraft with an inspiration from both Pompeii and the Cambridge Latin Book. This around 26 hours in total which was definitely worth the final result. We started little by little and then added the streets, shops, market place, temple, houses and amphitheatre. We first stated with the forum. Although our build is not inspired in specific builds we combined the ruines and famous building. E.G the temple was inspired in Roman Empires vast architecture.

Our build shows how ordinary Roman people walked around the streets to get local goods (by their trade) worship and most commonly seeing and speaking to friends. The forum is most known to be a place of these factors. This is the reason it is the beginning of our build. This also is the reason why it is near centre and has the roads around there house. We also were inspired in the characters in the book we are studying. Cambridge Latin course book 1 and this book shows how Caecilius a wealthy banker and tax collector do his trade and life during Roman times.

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Highly Commended: Alicja and Livia (y9) Bishop Thomas Grant School - Roman Forum

Our build was based off multiple reconstructions of roman forums from painters, along with the current ruins we have today. The reconstructions helped with colour schemes , and with more intricate details such as statues, with the ruins giving us an idea of the scaling required to make everything accurate. We also wanted the full picture of what a forum on a road would look like, so we took the time to construct houses, immersing the viewer in the experience.

Alicja took charge of texturing, as she is much more capable than I am, and it made the build much more pleasant and cohesive with everything else. Forums were used by all in society: merchants, businessmen, priest, and many more occupations. There were temples for praying for good business, fountains for serving offerings or simply for drinking water, to courtrooms to find those guilty of crime, along with benches to converse business and trade.

We’ve learnt of Caecilius and his wife going to the forum to look for dresses and togas, though these forums seemed much smaller scale compared to the forum Alicja and I envisioned. It was truly an honour participating, and we hope you enjoy what we’ve made.

Highly Commended: Finnley (y9) Ryde School - Amphitheatre at Nimes

For my “Building Communities” project, I recreated the Arènes de Nîmes, one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres still standing today. I chose to build an amphitheatre because it was a major part of Roman community life, similar to how football stadiums bring people together in the modern world. Amphitheatres were places of entertainment, where entire communities gathered to watch dramatic and sometimes brutal events like gladiator battles, animal hunts, and public executions.

The amphitheatre was designed as a large oval with a lowered central arena and tiered seating surrounding it. I have created a 1:1 scale of this model in Minecraft, trying to keep it as detailed, realistic and true to the building in France. I made sure to include the key architectural features — the stone arches, layered seating levels, and underground sections where animals and fighters would have been kept.

Winners: Elvina & Isobel (y11-13) Outward Grange School - Roman Baths

For our project we have decided to replicate the Roman Baths. We chose this historical site because the baths were important in Roman cultures, as they were used for a variety of things including socialising, exercising and hygiene. The baths often had a series of warm rooms similar to a sauna that one would pass through before taking a plunge into the large pool, of which we have replicated in Minecraft. The Roman Baths were a place often used for networking: they were open to everyone including the poor and the rich, making them a pivotal place for improving social status. The convivial nature of the baths are why we chose them out of a multitude of historical sites, they were one of few places where everyone gathered regardless of status.

Additionally, the Roman Baths are a very unique feature of Roman society, as they were built on natural hot springs and used hypocaust heating, a system that circulates hot air under the floor. Hypocaust heating is the earliest known record of underfloor heating. As both a pivotal social and technological feature of ancient history, the roman baths were incredible. Furthermore they are renowned for their beauty and are still visited in our modern world.

Highly Commended: Anthony & Elliott (y12) Runshaw College - Hanging gardens of Babylon

The Gardens of Babylon are an enigmatic ancient wonder of the world, with very little lasting documentation. Therefore, we built our interpretation of the texts: we found that the gardens were believed to have been a series of raised terraces with trees on them, built, as legend says1, by the King Nebuchadnezzar for his wife, Queen Amytis, to ease her feelings of hurt and homesickness from her mountainous homeland. The gardens would have been a recreational space for the queen, for her to walk through when she felt homesick, but were likely to be closed to the general public, given their nature as a royal gift. The gardens were described to have been an oasis in the desert of Babylon, hanging over the walls. From the outside, the public would have been able to see the trees and hanging plants over the walls and marvel at them in contrast to the bland desert expanses of Babylon. We took our inspiration from references in remaining scripture and surviving Babylonian ruins2, many of which portray bright colours on a lighter coloured stone background. The large arches on the first two layers and the open walls on the top level would have allowed easy access for the queen to walk through and admire the greenery surrounding. The roof of the top layer is inspired by ancient Greek pediments on temples with their triangular shape.

Highly Commended: Isobel (y12) Castle Rock School - the Colosseum

The colosseum is an elliptical Amphitheatre which is built in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy and is known for being the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built and the largest amphitheatre at 48m which is still standing despite how old it is. Construction started in 72 AD which is approximately 1950 years ago, and opened in 80 AD. An amphitheater is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances and sport. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον, from ἀμφί, meaning "on both sides" or "around" and θέατρον, meaning "place for viewing". Ancient Greek theatres were typically built on hillsides and semi-circular in design. The colosseum in specific was primary used for public spectacles and entertainment during the roman empire, events included gladiator fights, animal hunts and even more mock naval battles. The most common things to be put in the colosseum to fight were usually zoo animals that were large or were known to attack and slaves who were put there to fight by emperors without any choice.

The colosseum remains to be one of the seven wonders; it isn't well-preserved but has gone though many natural disasters such as earthquakes fires and it still stands.

Highly Commended: Harry (y12) Bradgate School - Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle has always been more than just an old building with towers and dungeons. It helped shape local communities for hundreds of years. In medieval times, people living nearby relied on the castle and its lords for safety during wars or attacks. In return, they worked the land or paid taxes. The castle wasn't just about defence though; it was the centre of local life: Markets, festivals, and big events were often held there. These brought people together from surrounding towns and villages. It became a place where the community could gather. Even today, Warwick Castle still brings people together. Families go there for fun, school trips happen all the time, and history fans meet up to explore or watch reenactments. So even though it's no longer used for protection, it still connects people. It's interesting how one place can matter to so many people, for so many different reasons, even after hundreds of years.