Man, if ever there was an example of the failure of the UA-cam algorithm, it's the fact that I've only recently discovered this channel. "Historians on Assassin's Creed" should be its own UA-cam category.
This is incredible content. I'm less than 10 minutes in and I'm going to subscribe. I am curious though, how did you manage to get a Harvard Egyptologist to agree to such a long interview, and about a videogame no less?
Kudos to the interviewer! Really fantastic and considered questions; you've got a talent for drawing out important aspects of both the game and the history with which it intersects. I worked with Dr. Der Manuelian ages ago on what was then the Giza Archives Project and it's great to hear from him again.
I’m a History student and English teacher from Brazil. I really like your channel and podcast. I would like to make it available for people from my country. My goal here would be to translate the videos so you guys can make the subtitles available on UA-cam. Would you be interested?
Seria muito bom! Eu faço um curso em Harvard e o professor Peter é um dos meus professores. Porém, infelizmente ainda não domino o inglês. Eu vim a esse vídeo por meio do curso. Se puderem colocar a legenda, eu ficaria muito grato.
11:00 AC Origins had the best western media representation of Egyptians ever, coming from an Egyptian btw. The phenotypes are accurate to the Egyptian ethnic group, and many Egyptian characters actually look like modern Egyptian actors, Hepzefa looked like a family freind of mine, Bayek looked a bit like Amr Saad and so on, Origins is among the few games that did Egyptians justice representation-wise, they did not blackwash or whitewash Egypt, even NPCs have accurate Egyptian phenotypes. On the issue of race, the Egyptians, Cushitics, and Amazighs all have a common ancestor group which was a mixture of mostly Paleolithic pastoral settlers of Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, Neolithic Levantines and Anatolians, among other later groups depending on the region, in the case of Egypt we had predynastic southern European influx and later Cushitic influx, all these groups mixed in the North and East African regions specifically Egypt, and would lay the overall genetic makeup of Ethnic Egyptians ancient and modern, so ofc they were and still are phenotypically diverse. To bring it closer to a western audience, the ancient Egyptians were multigenerationally mixed similar to modern Brazilians or Afro-latinos, they come in all colors and share a good variety in features. A country that had a ginger pharaoh (Ramses II), and a phenotypically Nilotic founder (Narmer or Mena) is by no means a "black" or "white" country. This accusation is unfair to say the least
I wish they would have talked about the clothing at some point and addressed if the clothing depicted in the game was historically accurate to the locations and era
Yes, it has. I don't have a specific link, but if you search Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour, you should find it. I think the stand alone version is on sale for $20.
I had that question as well, but we ran out of time. I'll come back to it when we discuss Discovery Tour. In the meantime, here's what they did to the statues in Discovery Tour: www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/21/assassins-creed-origins-discovery-tour-censors-all-the-nudey-statues/
Dang, I wanna get my hands on Discovery Tour mode. I might have to start up a $20 scholarship to give out free copies to Egyptians. (nah but for real, I don't know anything about my ancient ancestors, I needa find out, man)
"Read between the lines" of a society from 2000-6000 (minimum) years ago while conditioned in our time and distance from it as well as being inured of a paradigm that flagrantly ignores science in order to protect itself....yeah, guess I know why especially the Giza plateau was so inaccurate in the game
In ancient times, the distinction between magic and religion was almost none existent. The minute a prayer includes a request to change anything in the real world, the asking of the supernatural to affect the workings of nature, the asking for a healing, for good fortune, or for the death of your enemies, the rules of the game change. Is the prayer directed to the deity, God, or to a saint, or to an angel? That also matters. A prayer like Our Father, is a hymn exulting God the Father, asking for His will to be done and for declaring a complete submission to His will. That is not always the case with other prayers were a person asks for things for him/herself. In the ancient world, many prayers easily sounded like incantations and spells. Many prayers now a days can also sound like that. What we think of as magic in the modern world, like the Harry Potter kind with magic wands and Latin incantations,, it is not what ancients thought magic was. Magic was basically anything not approved by the government religion establishment. If they could not control it, it was bad. If a priest or rabbi did some kind of healing, whether natural ( maybe using herbs?) or supernatural (through prayer), it was considered a miracle. If a man did it, he was a sinner. But if a woman did exactly the same kind of healing, using the same prayers or incantations, she was a witch.
I think it's weird how this video (incredible and informative) only has 14k views. But when another youtuber (who only says 'seems legit' and has probably never read a history book before) has the same idea, it gets millions of views.
Hey, how did you contact with this egyptologist??? I'm trying to talk with egyptologists all over because I really want to study this amazing civilization, so if it isn't a big issue, would be great if you give me his email or something. Great video!!!
Peter der Manuelian is a professor with the www.edx.org/ site I'm taking a course with him called Pyramids of Giza: Ancient Egyptian Art and Archeology. It's pretty interesting and gives you access to the Giza Pyramid project that he manages. you can take the free version of the course or you can pay and get university credit for it.
he's not actually an Egyptology a couple historian professor friends of mine were talking about this video its not accurate even slightly during the period the games set everyone was mostly Roman/greek/Macedonian (if you look up Ptolemaic infantry they look like greeks) and cleo patra was an ugly Macedonian woman with a giant nose she was "beautiful" in her demeanour not her physical looks
They didn't discovered it out of a sudden, they evolved it. First there were the mastabas, then Djoser built the first step pyramid, by adding mastabas on top of each other. Then they experimented with the shape resulting in Meidum & Bent pyramids, along some unfinished pyramids. Lastly, Sneferu built the Red Pyramid, which is the first perfect pyramid shape.
Discover? The pyramid is the simplest most study design. That’s why there are thousands of pyramids around the world. If you get a tonne of sand, and drop it slowly, it forms a mount/pile in the shape of a pyramid. If you were to stack bags of potatoes or grain, the best way is in a pile/pyramid. That’s why it’s so common. In the grand scheme of history, the pyramids of Giza are not impressive. The sphinx is more impressive than the pyramids. There’s much more sophisticated structures around the world. There’s an astrological observatory in Ireland that was built 2 thousand years before the Egyptian pyramids.. far, far superior to the pyramids. The world is a big place full of rich history. It gets rewritten all the time, but still cool to look into
What a worthless interview. It's just a history lesson with zero questions on how realistic Assassin's Creed: Origins is. Jesus how can you miss the point by this much? No comment on the game accuracy (or lack thereof) of daily topics; streets, buildings, clothing, fashion, hair, everyday items, windows, tables, chairs, rooms, city layouts, cultural representations, language, pronunciation, accuracy of the variations of identifying features of cities Alexandria, Memphis, Thebes, Cyrene, Siwa, etc. Nothing. Please remove "about Assassin's Creed Origins" from the description. It is inaccurate.
...this is what made AC great...these games are the closest thing to a real-life animus...and Ubisoft to Abstergo...lol...they're monetizing history!...lol...and I'll pay every time!...lol...and so will you...
Well, Bob made his own bias a little obvious with the way he asked that question which might have made Peter a little uneasy - that's a discussion a lot of people want no part of. Both sides tend to get a bit impassioned in their perspectives.
He clearly described his personal bias and opinion and then said he didn't have a professional layer to add as that was outside his academic speciality - meaning his personal bias and opinion was all he had to offer. How the heck is the "dodging"? It was the complete and appropriate answer, within clearly defined parameters.
@Matt Horkan The ancient Egyptians depicted themselves as Egyptians. If a native ancient Egyptian was walking around today in New York, he or she would be classified as a black/African person. I am Jamaican who is nowhere near as dark skinned as a Nubian, but of course I am still classified as a black person of African descent. Africans do not have one shade of brown. The Nubians are just the darkest shade. www.pinterest.com/antony5606/pins/
Man, if ever there was an example of the failure of the UA-cam algorithm, it's the fact that I've only recently discovered this channel. "Historians on Assassin's Creed" should be its own UA-cam category.
This is incredible content. I'm less than 10 minutes in and I'm going to subscribe. I am curious though, how did you manage to get a Harvard Egyptologist to agree to such a long interview, and about a videogame no less?
I don't know!
@@HistoryRespawned 😂 well good on you for managing to do so. This was a wonderful experience.
@@HistoryRespawned lmao
Kudos to the interviewer! Really fantastic and considered questions; you've got a talent for drawing out important aspects of both the game and the history with which it intersects. I worked with Dr. Der Manuelian ages ago on what was then the Giza Archives Project and it's great to hear from him again.
I’m a History student and English teacher from Brazil. I really like your channel and podcast. I would like to make it available for people from my country. My goal here would be to translate the videos so you guys can make the subtitles available on UA-cam. Would you be interested?
Absolutely!
Seria muito bom! Eu faço um curso em Harvard e o professor Peter é um dos meus professores. Porém, infelizmente ainda não domino o inglês. Eu vim a esse vídeo por meio do curso. Se puderem colocar a legenda, eu ficaria muito grato.
Brasileiros aqui
11:00 AC Origins had the best western media representation of Egyptians ever, coming from an Egyptian btw. The phenotypes are accurate to the Egyptian ethnic group, and many Egyptian characters actually look like modern Egyptian actors, Hepzefa looked like a family freind of mine, Bayek looked a bit like Amr Saad and so on, Origins is among the few games that did Egyptians justice representation-wise, they did not blackwash or whitewash Egypt, even NPCs have accurate Egyptian phenotypes. On the issue of race, the Egyptians, Cushitics, and Amazighs all have a common ancestor group which was a mixture of mostly Paleolithic pastoral settlers of Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, Neolithic Levantines and Anatolians, among other later groups depending on the region, in the case of Egypt we had predynastic southern European influx and later Cushitic influx, all these groups mixed in the North and East African regions specifically Egypt, and would lay the overall genetic makeup of Ethnic Egyptians ancient and modern, so ofc they were and still are phenotypically diverse. To bring it closer to a western audience, the ancient Egyptians were multigenerationally mixed similar to modern Brazilians or Afro-latinos, they come in all colors and share a good variety in features. A country that had a ginger pharaoh (Ramses II), and a phenotypically Nilotic founder (Narmer or Mena) is by no means a "black" or "white" country. This accusation is unfair to say the least
Wow, this is cool to know
My man this content is so high quality how is to under appreciated?
oh it'll get there lol
I wish they would have talked about the clothing at some point and addressed if the clothing depicted in the game was historically accurate to the locations and era
This is great - thank you! Professor Manuelian makes the very complex VERY understandable. He's an incredible communicator!
Amazing and very interesting video. Keep up the good work!
Just found this channel today and subbed immediately. Love the series. Perhaps an episode on Kingdom Come: Deliverance next?
can't wait to see the one for Valhalla ❗️
Please make more assassins creed Egypt content!
How has this not go more love?
Great video
it's strange to hear the burial ritual and stuff because our family does this stuff to our deceased relatives. But we live in Tamil Nadu, India.
history always gives me goosebumps for some reason
Big up the EDX crew
Great video!
That educational version of ACO that you talk about toward the end, has it come out? Is there a link to it?
Yes, it has. I don't have a specific link, but if you search Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour, you should find it. I think the stand alone version is on sale for $20.
Looks great. I hope they do other versions for the previous AC's. I would like to revisit them with a tour mind.
Great content! With a bit of reworking this channel could be massive!
Awesome content mate thank you 🙏
P.s. i got up halfway through and turned PlayStation on and reinstalled ac origins lol.
The Giza 3D Project would be amazing if it just worked. The exploration is slow as hell and it allows to make only 3 steps before crashing.
I can't help but wonder, shouldn't the Ptolomaic/Greek statues be painted? (From what I've seen, they're blank in the game.)
I had that question as well, but we ran out of time. I'll come back to it when we discuss Discovery Tour. In the meantime, here's what they did to the statues in Discovery Tour: www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/21/assassins-creed-origins-discovery-tour-censors-all-the-nudey-statues/
Nit picking
Wow. This video has really held up!
Dang, I wanna get my hands on Discovery Tour mode. I might have to start up a $20 scholarship to give out free copies to Egyptians. (nah but for real, I don't know anything about my ancient ancestors, I needa find out, man)
Why do you sound like an American? Are you an American?
So no addressing the wild inaccuracies of Cleopatra's characterization or the inaccurate lumping together of Greek and Roman rule?
this could really use subtitles
There are English subtitles but it is auto generated
The audio is very clear to me
Great stuff
Thanks algorithm 👍
Love this game so much
First, also its always a great day when History Respawned releases a new vid.
Professor is low key a fan of Assassin's Creed.
"Read between the lines" of a society from 2000-6000 (minimum) years ago while conditioned in our time and distance from it as well as being inured of a paradigm that flagrantly ignores science in order to protect itself....yeah, guess I know why especially the Giza plateau was so inaccurate in the game
Inaccurate? How so?
I'm curious about the distinction you're making between spells and prayers.
In ancient times, the distinction between magic and religion was almost none existent. The minute a prayer includes a request to change anything in the real world, the asking of the supernatural to affect the workings of nature, the asking for a healing, for good fortune, or for the death of your enemies, the rules of the game change. Is the prayer directed to the deity, God, or to a saint, or to an angel? That also matters. A prayer like Our Father, is a hymn exulting God the Father, asking for His will to be done and for declaring a complete submission to His will. That is not always the case with other prayers were a person asks for things for him/herself. In the ancient world, many prayers easily sounded like incantations and spells. Many prayers now a days can also sound like that. What we think of as magic in the modern world, like the Harry Potter kind with magic wands and Latin incantations,, it is not what ancients thought magic was. Magic was basically anything not approved by the government religion establishment. If they could not control it, it was bad. If a priest or rabbi did some kind of healing, whether natural ( maybe using herbs?) or supernatural (through prayer), it was considered a miracle. If a man did it, he was a sinner. But if a woman did exactly the same kind of healing, using the same prayers or incantations, she was a witch.
Wow totally 💯 awesome and azming history too
I think it's weird how this video (incredible and informative) only has 14k views. But when another youtuber (who only says 'seems legit' and has probably never read a history book before) has the same idea, it gets millions of views.
Getting a lot of views on UA-cam can be very difficult and is often due to luck
Also this kind of content is very specific and niche.
Hey, how did you contact with this egyptologist??? I'm trying to talk with egyptologists all over because I really want to study this amazing civilization, so if it isn't a big issue, would be great if you give me his email or something.
Great video!!!
Peter der Manuelian is a professor with the www.edx.org/ site I'm taking a course with him called Pyramids of Giza: Ancient Egyptian Art and Archeology. It's pretty interesting and gives you access to the Giza Pyramid project that he manages. you can take the free version of the course or you can pay and get university credit for it.
he's not actually an Egyptology a couple historian professor friends of mine were talking about this video its not accurate even slightly during the period the games set everyone was mostly Roman/greek/Macedonian (if you look up Ptolemaic infantry they look like greeks) and cleo patra was an ugly Macedonian woman with a giant nose she was "beautiful" in her demeanour not her physical looks
fucking hell that was great, thanks.
Is there a professor here that can answer this question. How did the Egyptians discover the pyramid design???
They didn't discovered it out of a sudden, they evolved it. First there were the mastabas, then Djoser built the first step pyramid, by adding mastabas on top of each other. Then they experimented with the shape resulting in Meidum & Bent pyramids, along some unfinished pyramids. Lastly, Sneferu built the Red Pyramid, which is the first perfect pyramid shape.
Discover? The pyramid is the simplest most study design. That’s why there are thousands of pyramids around the world.
If you get a tonne of sand, and drop it slowly, it forms a mount/pile in the shape of a pyramid. If you were to stack bags of potatoes or grain, the best way is in a pile/pyramid.
That’s why it’s so common. In the grand scheme of history, the pyramids of Giza are not impressive. The sphinx is more impressive than the pyramids.
There’s much more sophisticated structures around the world. There’s an astrological observatory in Ireland that was built 2 thousand years before the Egyptian pyramids.. far, far superior to the pyramids. The world is a big place full of rich history. It gets rewritten all the time, but still cool to look into
The professor isn't answering clearly on the first few questions asked. Perhaps because it's way too lengthy idk
Thoth built the great pyramids ,praise to the keeper of records ✊🏾
No... That was Imhotep
i love ur vids do assassinz oddsey:)
What a worthless interview. It's just a history lesson with zero questions on how realistic Assassin's Creed: Origins is. Jesus how can you miss the point by this much? No comment on the game accuracy (or lack thereof) of daily topics; streets, buildings, clothing, fashion, hair, everyday items, windows, tables, chairs, rooms, city layouts, cultural representations, language, pronunciation, accuracy of the variations of identifying features of cities Alexandria, Memphis, Thebes, Cyrene, Siwa, etc. Nothing.
Please remove "about Assassin's Creed Origins" from the description. It is inaccurate.
...this is what made AC great...these games are the closest thing to a real-life animus...and Ubisoft to Abstergo...lol...they're monetizing history!...lol...and I'll pay every time!...lol...and so will you...
It's funny because this expert probably thinks Khufu's pyramid was actually built as a tomb hahaha
I know you wrote this comment 2 years ago but I am curious what it was built for?
He dodged that skin question unfortunately
Well, Bob made his own bias a little obvious with the way he asked that question which might have made Peter a little uneasy - that's a discussion a lot of people want no part of. Both sides tend to get a bit impassioned in their perspectives.
He clearly described his personal bias and opinion and then said he didn't have a professional layer to add as that was outside his academic speciality - meaning his personal bias and opinion was all he had to offer.
How the heck is the "dodging"? It was the complete and appropriate answer, within clearly defined parameters.
@Matt Horkan The ancient Egyptians depicted themselves as Egyptians. If a native ancient Egyptian was walking around today in New York, he or she would be classified as a black/African person. I am Jamaican who is nowhere near as dark skinned as a Nubian, but of course I am still classified as a black person of African descent. Africans do not have one shade of brown. The Nubians are just the darkest shade. www.pinterest.com/antony5606/pins/