Ancient Bones Museum

Quickstart

1. Craft the tools and workstations. You need a Fossil Brush, Curator's Desk, and Assemble Table. The complete recipes are listed under Crafting And Obtaining.
2. Find a Fossil Bed. In the Overworld, fossil beds periodically appear on exposed sediment near players. Look for the distinctive bed block and the discovery message.
3. Excavate it. Hold the Fossil Brush and use it on the Fossil Bed. The bed is consumed and gives you one raw specimen.
4. Clean the specimen. Place the Curator's Desk, hold the matching raw bone or fossil in your main hand, and hold the Fossil Brush in your off-hand. Use the raw specimen on the desk to receive its cleaned version.
5. Assemble a fossil. Collect three matching cleaned specimens, then use one of them on the Assemble Table. The three cleaned items are consumed and an assembled fossil is returned.
6. Build the display. Hold the assembled fossil and use it on the top face of a block with plenty of open floor space around it. The item is consumed and the complete skeletal display is built automatically. Face the direction you want the display to point before placing it.

In Creative Mode, the Fossil Brush, workstations, fossil beds, and every fossil stage are available in the Ancient Bones Museum creative tab.

Overview

Ancient Bones Museum turns fossil hunting into a collection and museum-building activity:

excavate → clean → assemble → display

Fossil Beds are field finds, while the Curator's Desk and Assemble Table let you process each discovery. Assembled fossils are not ordinary decorative items: using one on the ground creates a complete, multi-block skeleton display.

What It Adds

Workstations and tools

Fossil collection

The museum contains raw, cleaned, and assembled forms for 35 specimens, including dinosaurs, marine animals, prehistoric plants, invertebrates, and Ice Age animals.

How To Use

Finding Fossil Beds

Fossil Beds appear periodically in the Overworld within roughly 32 blocks of players. They require exposed natural sediment such as sand, sandstone, gravel, clay, dirt, stone, tuff, or terracotta.

A bed can appear only where it has open air above it, so search exposed terrain rather than deep underground. Each bed provides one excavation, so explore for additional beds after brushing one away.

Excavating

Hold the Fossil Brush and use it on a Fossil Bed. The bed disappears and supplies one raw specimen. The specimen type varies from bed to bed, so excavate multiple beds to complete your collection.

Cleaning specimens

1. Place a Curator's Desk.
2. Put the Fossil Brush in your off-hand.
3. Hold a raw specimen in your main hand.
4. Use the raw specimen on the desk.

The raw item is consumed and the matching cleaned item is placed in your inventory. The brush must be in the off-hand; otherwise the bone will not be cleaned.

Assembling fossils

1. Collect three cleaned specimens of the same type.
2. Hold one of them in your main hand.
3. Use it on the Assemble Table.

The table checks your entire inventory for the required three matching cleaned specimens. When successful, it consumes three and returns the corresponding assembled fossil.

Building skeleton displays

Hold an assembled fossil and use it on the top face of a block. The assembled item is consumed and its complete skeleton is placed on the floor above that block.

Displays have different sizes, so clear the whole area before placing one. If any required space is occupied, the fossil is not consumed and the display is not built. The skeleton is oriented according to your facing direction when placed.

Fossil Fragments

You can also use a Fossil Fragment on a Curator's Desk. One fragment is consumed; when it was the last fragment in the held stack, a generic Cleaned Fossil is returned.

The generic Cleaned Fossil is separate from the species-specific cleaned bones and fossils. It cannot substitute for a matching cleaned specimen at the Assemble Table.

Crafting And Obtaining

Fossil Brush

Craft a Fossil Brush from a feather, flint, and sticks.

Curator's Desk

The Curator's Desk is crafted from oak planks, books, and a gold nugget.

Assemble Table

The Assemble Table is crafted from spruce planks, iron nuggets, and a crafting table.

Fossil Fragment

A bone and gravel produce two Fossil Fragments.

Fossil Beds

Fossil Beds do not have a crafting recipe. They appear naturally in exposed Overworld sediment, and the Fossil Bed block is also available in the Ancient Bones Museum creative tab.

Museum Curator Pass

The Museum Curator Pass is available in the Ancient Bones Museum creative tab. There is no survival crafting recipe for it.

Fossil Catalogue

Each row shows the processing path for one complete specimen.

Progression And Strategy

• Build your Curator's Desk and Assemble Table near your museum entrance or excavation camp.
• Keep raw and cleaned specimens separated so matching sets are easy to track.
• Reserve three cleaned specimens for each species before starting another assembly.
• Search open deserts, badlands, beaches, gravel areas, and other exposed sediment for Fossil Beds.
• Leave a large clear room for large skeletons such as Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Mammoth.
• Face the desired direction before placing an assembled fossil; displays are built as complete structures rather than one block at a time.
• Use signs, lighting, themed rooms, and separate wings for dinosaurs, marine fossils, plants, and Ice Age specimens to turn the collection into a readable museum.