I think that 1-block hole by the furnaces and the iron bars that you theorized could have melted at 3:06 was build like that to hold lava, like blacksmiths in villages.

@Real_Moon-Moon

4 ай бұрын

Or was a fireplace thing, used for baking bread, or cooking.

@larrylightfoot22222

4 ай бұрын

​@@Real_Moon-Moonwith the placement of a smiting table, it's more likely to be a blacksmith location.

@Real_Moon-Moon

4 ай бұрын

@@larrylightfoot22222 That makes sense. Sorry, I’m a tad blind, even with my glasses on.

@HallowedGreaves

4 ай бұрын

​@@Real_Moon-Moon I felt this in my soul.

@sanneoi6323

4 ай бұрын

Yes.

A part of me wants to suggest that the golden nugget found on the central walkway may have been a piece of currency.

@EmilySmirleGURPS

4 ай бұрын

Since it was at a higher level, it may have been accidentally dropped by someone exploring the ruins in the past, just passing through on the line of the old road system, or be a hoard deposition.

@verticleaxis2920

4 ай бұрын

I think it was maybe a bell (Like the one in villages) and the bell was stolen but the little ball thing inside fell out. That ball thing being the nugget.

@yungpm

3 ай бұрын

Makes sense considering piglins trade with gold.

@country_flyboy

3 ай бұрын

​​@@verticleaxis2920 It could also be where a clock was (either some of the clockwork broke out as it fell and decayed over time or it is part of the gold casing)

30:26 i think that gold nugget could be what's left of a bell. They appear in most villages and we are drawing connections to them.

@masonchristensen1392

3 ай бұрын

Could it also be some ancient coin or something?

@DracoJ

3 ай бұрын

@masonchristensen1392 it definitely could be the remnants of jewelry or a coin. But I'm using minecraft items specifically. So, using that, this could have been a bell, gold armor, a gold tool, or just a bigger gold ingot.

I'd love to see you roleplay some of the earlier steps of the Section 106 process with the Piglins in a Bastion Remnant -- especially since, there ARE actual culturally sensitive issues there around wearing gold while working on the structure and disturbing anything gold that's part of the structure.

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

Ha! That’s a great idea!

@Unkle_Genny

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, great idea!

@catsdogswoof3968

4 ай бұрын

They are the most lottable structure

@PeeperSnail

4 ай бұрын

I would love to see that because there's something educational to be shown in that instance. How do you excavate and/or restore a site that's both still in use AND has specific, cultural rules one must follow to enter? It'd also work as a little history lesson, how did archeologists tread the issue a century ago vs. how archeologists tread it now. Also side note but I'd love it if there was a mod or a future update that fleshed out piglins and maybe villagers more. Maybe add some sort of, IDK the term, cultural assimilation value? Where piglins grow to accept the player and there's certain things they'll allow once you reach a good standing with them, preferrably by participating in their culture.

@Lumberjack_king

2 ай бұрын

is it archeology if the ruins are still inhabited yeah its ruined but the piglins still live their

26:50 I love how he looks directly at the first ruin spot and wonders if the tree he planted has always been there

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

So I went back and watched, the taller tree wasn’t there in the beginning, haha!

@EmilySmirleGURPS

4 ай бұрын

One of the saplings you didn't bonemeal yourself was waiting to photobomb you 😅

I think a broken over tower makes the most sense, since that flat roof of the tower reminds me of other 'ruin' structures like the pillars in the Ancient cities

About the animal pen around 15:30, cauldrons full of water have featured in Minecraft villages as leatherworker workstations for a while. In fact, in the Bedrock edition, you can use the cauldron to dye leather or wash it clean of dyes.

@larrylightfoot22222

4 ай бұрын

Especially with the presence of armor trims around the area. It was likely a leatherworking station

the criscross brick hole is either a well or grain storage. the beams allow you to climb down to collect water if the water is low if its a well(though a ladder would make more sense). if it's grain storage, the crossmembers provide areas to sit/stand to airate the grain with a shovel. the beams would also provide something to grab onto/block you so the grain doesnt suck you to the bottom if you fall. this is a very big hazard with storing grain.

@Gbroyoudead

7 күн бұрын

He didnt show it but there is actually a ladder off to the side that goes to the bottom of this structure.

Armor trims can indicate guards and the point where they were killed, as if it was a trade post that was raided .

@SuperJelly55

4 ай бұрын

That make sense

Imagine that world 1 was how it started - then some attack took place and damaged the lookout tower. The village, weakened by the attack and less wealthy than before, rebuilt the structure as best they could and used the fallen tower top as a signal fire station. Could be, could be. Without primary sources such as a description of battle or some local's diary or even oral history of an event, we could never be sure.

@melvinfranco2142

4 ай бұрын

That could very well be it.

Something you could do that you may not know to enhance the beacon status of the tower in world one would be to place hay underneath the campfires and open the roof, that would result in a taller smoke trail. The reasoning being that traders and travels would logically be able to spot the smoke at a much further distance then the tower itself acting as a better beacon. Edit: Adding onto this, the tower serving as a beacon with the aid of smoke could logically be used as a form of robust communication with any nearby settlement by use of smoke signals, perhaps the tower could be used to warn of any incoming danger ahead of time be it something like a pillager raid (using Minecraft’s world building) or the presence of any especially dangerous group of mobs in the area.

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

The brick was solid throughout, so no evidence of a hole

@goodaccountname2018

4 ай бұрын

@@daskalosBCEif the top of the tower fell any evidence of an opening could have been concealed with how it fell, another point is with the glass windows encapsulating the space without a way to vent the space (again granted it’s minecraft so this isn’t modelled) the glass would get covered in soot unless regularly cleaned in a very smoky environment which would have been difficult given how frequently it would need to be done even if the fires had been extinguished at the moment. Granted that feels like a bit of a stretch but I still don’t know if a building with that large a pyre wouldn’t have some form of ventilation. Regardless it’s an amazing build and definitely an inspiration nonetheless.

@catsdogswoof3968

4 ай бұрын

​@@goodaccountname2018instresting

It would be interesting if you did the same thing for the Ancient City.

Yes! Another convert to the Church of Birch! (It makes sense they'd use birch since these were found in an old-growth birch forest.)

Ever since they've been added to the game and I discovered that if you removed all the dirt and gravel you'd get clear ruins hinting at actual buildings, I've been soooooo curious of how it would look. Thank you soooooo much for answering this question and making this video, it was so interesting! Also, I prefer world 1 with the sort of lighthouse-y tower

so how would you imagine a "village" like that would most likely..."tie into the surroundings." like...I'm sure there'd be fields all around, surely roads leading up to the town...but what else?

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

With my interpretation video I hypothesized that the ruins were a place of commerce. So, I would think that people lived around the area and the further you got from the village the more rural it would be

@TizonaAmanthia

4 ай бұрын

@@daskalosBCE sounds good. might be interesting to have your builder friend do a glow up of the surroundings on one or both of the restorations...heh.

@spaceengineeringempire4086

4 ай бұрын

This has a more of an outpost feel. Like a stop used to rest and resupply in very long journeys.

@ternovnik257

Ай бұрын

That was my thought. I also feel there's something vaguely military about it - one armory makes sense considering the dangers of the Minecraft world, but 2 seems a little overkill. So maybe the settlement was initially a guard tower at the edge of some country, and then locals began to trade there until it became a proper town.

I LOVE THIS!!! You brought back memories of my late father who was an archaeologist and geologist. I sure miss going on digs with him. He taught me so much. Subscribed!

The red brick building, locus G I think, looks to be something like a brick kiln or draft kilm. the greenware clay bricks and pots would be laid across the open slats and the open top would pull air up from the bottom where the firebox would be. the draft and spacing would increase the temperature of the fire as it is fed fuel and oxygen and fire the clay. I imagine there would be a way for someone to either climb down to the firebox, or maybe stairs to provide easier access to the rest of the kiln below. Thank you for the awesome video!

@chrismichaelyoung

4 ай бұрын

I was looking for this suggestion, I saw a different video where it was converted into this function and it seems to make the most sense. Gotta have some place to dry all those pots and terracotta, right?

@ValeriaCorvina

2 ай бұрын

I have one of those structures in my world. It has a below-ground section that holds 2 blast furnaces, and an external ladder down to them! I've been racking my brain trying to tie the entire structure together, and I think you've nailed it.

@Gbroyoudead

7 күн бұрын

Although I like this theory there is actually a "decoration" as the files call it that is for sure a place that was used to cook the terracotta, bricks, and pottery.

I think the "random" armor trims could be some sort of trade currency, they're super valuable today, could also be back then, even if the people who inhabited these places could make it themselves

Ya, world 1 definitely feels right. I hope you don't mind, but I'm definitely gonna be taking some inspiration from this when restoring my trail ruins. I'll also be doing things differently tho for creative purposes.

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

Go for it!

its very convincingly an arid or near equatorial culture, protection from the sun is the primary concern, i love that

The weird crisscrossing bricks underground make me think of an earth kiln

I would say the cross-cross brick hole is perhaps a cistern of some description? It didn’t necessarily store water, but it seems to me that it was a bulk-storage area.

@user-we4bl5sr9w

4 ай бұрын

Perhaps a cemetery?

@TheGreatCthvlhv

4 ай бұрын

@@user-we4bl5sr9wMaybe? It could be some sort of vertical catacomb.

@taylorhillard4868

4 ай бұрын

I was thinking a root cellar to keep food.

@TheGreatCthvlhv

4 ай бұрын

@@taylorhillard4868I could see that too

Of all the rebuilds I've seen, this one is by far and away my favorite! You've done such a lovely job with this series and it's been very fun to watch! I do feel that both worlds are good, however I think that maybe the terracotta on locus B was part of the tower, and the brick/campfires were their own structure. The campfires could have provided a signal to distant travelers that civilization was near, while the tower provided coverage for a lookout of sorts. That's just my interpretation, though!

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

I like it! thats definitely a possibility!

Love your recreation! I think the tower did have a big broken off piece, so the first world is more accurate. I imagine the building with crisscross bricks is either a cistern for fresh water, or a sewage building to drain out waste water from the town.

@Sheogorath3477

4 ай бұрын

Or 'ts some sort of a coal pit

@RryhhbfrHhgdHhgd356

4 ай бұрын

With the blast furnaces at the bottom, I wondered if it might not have been some sort of huge, strange draft furnace sort of deal. The sort of thing you built to obtain a single ingot of iron at a time for really poor ore with insufficient temperatures. 😂

I'm on team 1. I do think that the road should be a bit above the ground though, roads usually are to avoid flooding. Roman roads tend to have ditches on both sides for that effect while Mayan roads in places like El Mirador just are above the ground in a similar look to this. In this case that probably matters less since it is the top of a hill but that wouldn't have stopped someone like the Romans from making ditches. It is fun to restore ruins in games, I have done it in Rimworld myself a couple of times.

Yes. I thought you forgot. 😅

Definitely world one where you did the brick topped tower. I would 100% think it was a broken off chunk. Wonderful job! A true restoration that is refreshing after all the transformation videos I've seen. Thank you!

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Regarding the top of the tower; I seem to faintly recall you mentioning in one of the excavation videos that you think the bricks in structure 2 could have been used as a representation of rubble/shattered terracotta; going from that, I am now thinking if the tower may have been a floor higher yet, without the rim around it at the top, that that was merely the result of the thing coming down and crushing its top floor, forcing the rubble out to the side

@diegokevin3824

4 ай бұрын

Could also be crushed crenelations and battlements, if the roof was meant to be accessed

That single unstripped burch log in building H has been taunting me since you first started on locus G until you fixed it 2/3 of the way through the glamour shots.

I'm blown away you were able to detect any semblance of actual architecture in these piles of debris in the ground. I was always able to distinguish things like patterned floors and brick.... structures? But this one genuinely looks like a small town, even if the original materials chosen look abhorrent. Great job.

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

thank you!

World 1 for sure. The tower makes a lot more sense, and really brings out the rest of the build.

I like your reconstruction a lot better than other videos doing the same thing!

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

Thank you, I appreciate that!

I think that locus b could indeed be constructed of debris from the top of the tower, but I don't think that the bricks supporting it are a part of the tower. the structure of the brick portion of locus b is nearly identical to the structure of foundations found in the complex, while not resembling any of the roofs found in the complex. we only see bricks used as a roofing material once, with supporting arches, in a layer only one block thick. the style of roof suggested by including the brick portion of locus b in the tower would be highly resource intensive, requiring far more brick than necessary to construct and placing an incredible weight on the underlying structure. therefore, I propose that locus b is, in fact, a small structure or outdoor area that was crushed by debris from the tower's collapse.

The building with the brick crisscrosses was probably some form of firing pit. Brick is generally heat resistant and could work as an excellent place for the ancient trail civilization to fire their mud and clay bricks as well as some pottery.

I think that criss cross building you didn't understand was an aquafer. water would leach in from the soil or maybe collect from rain. it could be that the different beams are places for you to stand as the water level lowers. it seems pretty weird that every modern village has a well but this one doesn't.

I love this so much! I think the tower makes a bit more sense as a lighthouse/beacon than as a lookout if this really was a peaceful market, and since there's already a blacksmith and a shared firepit I can't think of any reason for another shared oven. It's so cool to imagine what these places would have been like, and I actually like the more claustrophobic feel, it's a great contrast to the wide open areas and larger-scaled mega builds we're more used to, yeah in a 1:1 scale world you might want to use something smaller than a metre cubed as a pillar down the middle of the road, but at the same time it gives it this stable, cosy feeling, I can imagine a culture who moves at a slower, more peaceful pace, gradually taking their time to see the entire market, where we might be frustrated to not be able to see all of such a tiny street, they might enjoy discovering things as they come to them, and I can imagine children playing hiding/racing games between the pillars!

@LoonaStanGTNH

4 ай бұрын

this made me emotional

I like the world where the tower collapsed, and was restored. I didnt see it at first, but after seeing it restored, now I cant unsee it. Amazing reverse archaeology/engineering. The mystery locus with the brick roof: I think its a warehouse/larder/grain silo, going down instead of up to keep the stores cool. Ground level would be all the chests, and the Quartermaster point of sale desk. Criss cross pattern below would support hay bales and mushroom growing plots of podzol. ladders and trapdoors for access. Possibly a secret alchemy lab in deep basement... The side animal pens area- I think they should heavily lean towards Horse/donkey/Llama industry. Stables, grooming, milking, breeding. Crafting table/cauldron for leather armor dying/saddle/'horseshoes' The Tower would house/equip the Soldier Garrison assigned to police/protect the place, with a crossbow/sword shop tucked in one one level, bunks on another. ----- So ultimately the Village as a whole was less of a town and more of a one stop service/rest station (like a fantasy world truck stop), for farmers in the region and travellers passing through. It even has a Diner setup for a nice rest. I recommend fleshing the place out with villagers,corralled into shop stalls and stuff. If going really crazy, farmer townhouses out in the fields, horse grazing pens and ranches to justify the Trail Truckstop's existence. :)

Watching the full series makes this restauration very satisfying, but i am glad you also kept the original intact.

Maybe locus B was the top of the tower at some point, but it became a memorial of some sort after it fell. It paints a picture of a storied town with a layered history.

I’m a wildlife biologist but I’ve fallen down the archaeology rabbit hole of youtube, with this and miniminuteman

Wonder what the deep dark would look like when people still lived there because it's obvious people lived there at some point.

Yeah, I think that the tower broke off, makes sense

10:10 You can still shift-click blocks while flying. You just need to hold space first and then hold shift while you are still holding space.

Is it possible that the basement building thing is actually a sort of cellar that exists to keep things cool during the summer months? Though I suppose it would be hard to identify it as anything like that without corroborating evidence. Also that gold nugget was possibly just a coin or something someone dropped assuming they used minted currency, could also be that they used gold nuggets as currency.

@noodlecat1955

4 ай бұрын

I agree that the gold nugget is probably an old coin, or since emeralds are Minecraft's currency perhaps a piece of lost jewelry? We know they decorated their armor because of the armor trims, so jewelry isn't out of the question

Yes! I was waiting for this since the start of the series!

Is it possible some of those glass panes were actually fragments of full blocks? That might explain some of the awkward windows

Late comment may well be invisible but ... I agree with the person who says the criss-cross brick pit may have been a kiln for tile or bricks; it looks a lot like the one I saw in use in a documentary about that. And Locus B could perhaps have been an open-air communal kitchen, as kitchens in some times/places were separate from main buildings due to risk of fire. This was great though ... the culmination of all the careful unearthing and preservation of artifacts is the part where we try to figure out the story behind them.

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

not invisible, yet! i try to keep up on it, though often slack in that department

I really enjoyed this. Fun to see your viewpoint with your background IRL. As a tip - when you show case and point - don't shake the mouse to show what you talk about, and keep the view for a second or so longer when moving - will make your shots smoother and more pleasant to watch. Edit in an arrow if needed later^^ Im guessing the gold nugget found would be currency used instead of coins from the old

I was just listening to Pompeii by Bastille before this, so now I'm trying to picture how each of the buildings had collapsed (assuming it was a cataclysm of some sort that destroyed the town, and not abandonment over time)

Ngl, this makes it feel much more... Lived in. Real. Like an actual civilization once resided there. I'd love to do the same thing for my Minecraft world.

22:46 You probably wouldn't normally want a pit kiln for making charcoal or firing clay right in the middle of your town, but when I look at that criss-crossing brick structure, all I can think of is a kiln of some kind. Call it a hunch.

so THATS why we dont see birch villages. 11:17 it is because they are too chill and aesthetically pleasing somehow so it was destroyed.

the fireplace thing at 27:39 could be a kiln , since those ruins are one of the only place where you find pottery sherds , it could be the place where the ancient residents used to fire them , with degradation , it only looked like a weird square building , but maybe it would make more sense if it was just a tall furnace to fire those pots in

i remember doing this for ruined portals, it's pretty fun and surprisingly easy.

I'm surprised that there are so many people who believe that it was probably one tower. The way I see it, there is no way the top of the tower did an exact 180, fell exactly perpendicular, and had the roof perfectly intact after it crashed down, which also happens to be the same material as some other foundations. There must be something missing there. I actually like the theory in the comments of the last video, where people were saying that it might have been a kiln. That makes a lot of sense to me. Granted though, both versions are beautiful. If it wasn't supposed to be an accurate interpretation, it'd be tough to pick a favorite. Almost every part of this restoration looks gorgeous.

@bepisenjoyer

3 ай бұрын

Minecraft is a bit limited in the angle blocks can sit...

@TraitorousHomeworlder

3 ай бұрын

​@@bepisenjoyer It is, but 90 degrees is one of those angles. There's also just too many other coincidences for me not to doubt the theory.

I would also assume since there were no indication of remains it wasnt necessarily a pompeii-esque event but more of just an abandonment for some reason. Would be cool if they put clues as to why the place was abandoned.

A tip for building on things like trapdoors and other blocks with a right-click function like furnaces while you're in Creative mode, is that you can hold Shift and Space at the same time while flying to be able to sneak-place blocks without having to be on the ground - leaving this because of how you had to fiddle with placing the red candle in the first building, and figured it might come in handy somewhere else down the line.

woohoo finally got around to watching this yippeee XD i'd say that the tower in world 1 definitely seems to fit better. absolutely loved the remake and explaination as always

Cinema is back

The fully restored trail ruins really remind me a lot of villager towns, but with the structures more closely built together and it got me thinking...It would be so much nicer if they were instead added into Villages as a kind of "downtown" or "central market" instead of being pointlessly buried underneath the ground.

So, based on your earlier interpretations and this rebuild, it looks like this was a trading outpost. Selling farm goods at first, but later incorporating a militaristic trade as well. Possibly rasing pigs as foodstuffs for those who lived there.

Nice, though around 7:10 you talk about villages not having texturing, they do, the cobblestone is mixed with mossy cobblestone in the village buildings.

I agree with the assessment that the side pillars would work nicely as fence posts. This was super cool!

Have absolutely 0 background in archaeology or anything, but could the criss-crossing underground brick beams be some sort of food storage/drying/salting/preparation area? I don't know why I got that feeling from it when you were showing the finished product off, but I did.

28:28 the road being one tile above makes sense if it is intended to represent how road is arched to let the water drip down the sides, kinda like /TTT\

12:10 I think possibly that pot could've been on a rack. Maybe there's more pots on it too. Perhaps store some food (on extinguished campfires).

While I love what you did with Locus B in World 2, World 1 makes way more sense for the tower. It's right on the water, and would act like a lighthouse with all those fires and explains the stained-glass.

Not sure why exactly but the way this place looks kind of gives Minoan vibes

I think the animal pen could be the leather work house from the standard villages The cauldron can be used for dyeing leather and the dye, ores and and armour trims could be the remnants of an old leather armour pieces on armour stands that disintegrated over time Also for building B, it could be a kiln for making all of the jars and pots around the town

I'd love to see you do something similar for some of the other structures in the game, such as the Ancient City, the Bastion Remnants, and some of the Ruined Portal variants. I'm curious what you might think they would've looked like.

29:46 I would say that that armour trim could have been a personal belonging from the stall owner, or, depending why the place was abandoned (like with a natural disaster), from someone else who happened to be carrying that and died there.

The both look nice, but I like the lore of world 2's tower collapsing. Great work!

By the way, you can use this command to give you an invisible item frame to make placing items in your world more seamless (prime example: the farmer's stall) /give @p minecraft:item_frame{EntityTag:{Invisible:1}}

Considering in ancient times, purple was a valuable material, I think the purple roof building's roof was looted as plunder.

@emilylike-the-soup2502

4 ай бұрын

That’s true in the real world, but purple dye is readily available in the Overworld, especially since this is a biome with plenty of wildflowers.

@jakepierson6208

4 ай бұрын

@@emilylike-the-soup2502 Ah, that makes sense.

I think the building at 25:13 would have been a food production area. -dirt to grow the wheat -beetroot seeds in the other room -a hoe -wheat storage pots -open to the sun Just a thought.

That's cool! Both World 1 and World 2 look good.

I always thought the sunken/upside-down tower was some sort of mineshaft

Amazing! I love your analysis and recreation!

I never realized that there was way more under the Trail Ruins on the surface for a few months

30:16 I wonder if the nugget represents a clock of some kind. They’re the only furniture item I can think of in Minecraft that’s made of gold, it makes some sense since it’s positioned where as many people as possible can see it, and I’ve seen clocks in similar locations in shopping centres and the like. Alternatively, some kind of currency? It is a market after all.

covered central walkway is intresting

Definitely think there's more evidence for that piece to be the top of the tower than it's own structure. Also I wonder if the gold nugget was supposed to be either money since it's by the stalls or maybe jewelry, since it's a public spot.

I really can't decide which i prefer. I love both of them and this video!

22:30 I think this one could be a place for something like "jump trial", so maybe there SHOUD be a holes on the floor

I think the tower top having fallen over is very plausible if they align like that so therefore more realistic. I think maybe looking at the names of the armour trims could hint at who was where and whatnot.

5:50 placing modern ideas of beauty on past 😂 poor birch

Maybe the building with the criss-crossing brick beams was some sort of cistern, well or water basin? Would explain why the subterranean part is too narrow to navigate

So these used to be a type of Bazaar type location? Interesting.

@daskalosBCE

3 ай бұрын

That is my interpretation of these ruins in particular. Other ruins may produce a different outcome

I wonder if the room with the criss-cross brick structures was maybe for curing/drying animal hides, clay or terricotta tiles, mud bricks, and/or pottery. It could also possibly have been a morgue where dead bodies were kept.

@justsomeguy5628

4 ай бұрын

Also, it may have been used for storing food underground, where it may have been a bit cooler.

The criss-crossing brick structure is almost certainly supposed to be a well

i was thinking that the wood beams supported some kind of wooden aqueduct or something

Bro did a Sir Arthur Evans (nah but seriously though I love your vids)

@daskalosBCE

4 ай бұрын

Than you! Im glad you love them!

I think it would be interesting if you took a look at the other trail ruins structures as well (as in the other trail ruin structures that can be loaded into the game) and interpreted what they might be.

Came here from milo's ethics video. Stayed for the minecraft videos. Fantastic Content.

World 1, by a mile. Good work!

Honestly its super cool how uou recreated eveyething!

Only thing I could think the brick structure with the odd crisscrossing bricks would be is an underground kiln. One layer of bricks, a lattice of wood, another layer of bricks, a layer of wood, so on. Since theirs gaps in-between neatly stacked blocks of brick I'd presume those are bricks that were being fired the day the Trail Ruin...fell to ruin? Perhaps it caught fire, who knows. Point is they're still crisscross because they hardened that way underground over time, and the wood in-between was already a blaze to "cook" the bricks by Minecraft Standards or decayed overtime and the bricks semi-petrified.

I love these videos

I think I like world 1's build better-the flames in the tower seems to make sense to me, perhaps they used it as a way to notify the townsfolk of the time of day? Like a rudimentary clock of sorts. Or, perhaps if it was closer to water, it was used as a sort of lighthouse? Or maybe simply kept the town lit up during the dangerous nights. There's plenty of reasoning, but I think the fires inside the tower makes more sense than a large firepit to sit at when there was already a 'warm sitting area'.

30:15 I think that gold nugget was currency back then. People today lose money on the streets all the time, it would've been no different back then.