This Friday the game 'Manor Lord' is coming out, it's a medieval city builder that I've made a modest contribution to as a historical consultant and beta tester for.
I've been very excited about it for a long time and I'm not the only one, it's creating quite a buzz and has ended up on a lot of wishlists.
What I love about it most is that it tries to depict the middle ages in an accurate way, behind the scenes historians, experts & history addicts have been debating the tiniest details.
I think the result is one of the most historically accurate medieval games I've ever played.

#Manorlords So let's have a sneak peek at it shall we?

First, here's an official video:

Sigh.
An account with half a million followers just tweeted that long debunked 'life in the 1500s' nonsense, 2.2 million people have seen it.
So here we go again...

These phrases are much more recent:
wordorigins.org/big-list-entri…
Facts she says.

Thread of some of the countless fun illustrations in this amazing medieval copy of 'Romance of Alexander'.
Full book here:


We start with this naked chap with nuns in a wheelbarrow.
Don't ask me what it means. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ae9f6c…
Nuns & monks playing baseball?
Put everyone in a habit, that would make sports more interesting to watch.

Recently I spotted a little holiday photo album for sale, usually I'm not interested in them because such photos are generally a bit boring, but I spotted a tiny detail that told me the album was very interesting.
Yes, that V sign.
Let's check the album out together.

Photo 🧵! The album starts in Dresden, April 10th 1941.
Less then 4 years after the photo was taken this church would be a ruin.


The Dresden Zwinger, a palatial complex with gardens.
Also a ruin just a few years later.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_C…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwinger_%…

NEW MEDIEVAL LEGO SET!!
But is it historically accurate?
Let's take a closer look and be annoying about details, shall we? At fight sight it looks awesome and I want it and I want to play with it and feel 8 again.
Shuttup, I can do what I want, you're not my mum.

I love the buildings and the way they created thatch roofs.

But... what is that I see there in the corner?

I love old wallpaper sample books, they're quite the treasure trove for set designers, researchers, historians, etc.
So let's look at a few I recently bought, Belgian, 1930s.
It starts nice and calm but then... Nothing shocking here.
But yes, the first book is all textured paper, you can stroke it and it's lovely.

Well, I've seen 'Napoleon' and here's my review.
It's going to be a long one full of complaining about details and of course with tons of spoilers.
You've been warned.

🧵 As usual, I start with the trailer:

Portraits of French resistance fighters during the 2nd World War.
Taken by Izis Bidermanas, a Jewish photographer who had been tortured by the Nazis but set free by the resistance who he then joined.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izis_Bide…

Su Nuraxi (Barumini) in winter.
A late Bronze Age Italian settlement with fortifications and a Nuraghe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Nuraxi…
Some details:

Here it finally is, my review of 'Kingdom Come Deliverance', some of you have been asking me to review this game for ages!

For some background, here is the wikipedia page;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_C…
And here's the trailer;

I've found this gem, the 1938 presentation of the steam ship Nieuw Amsterdam.
Lots of delicious pictures of what the then brand new and super modern ship looked like and all the art it had on board.
It's gorgeous, check out this thread.
No drooling. Bronze panels on the walls depicting the four seasons and views of New York, paintings for Deck A.

The Citroën 2CV, or as we called it the ugly duckling.
My parents had a couple of them over the years.
I have fond memories of flying all over the back seat (no seatbelts), flapping the window open, being squished between smoking hippies.
Good times.

This was one of our cars: Very early prototype:

So what did Vikings really look like?
TV/movies tell us they looked like dollar-store biker gangs, wearing black leather, covered in dirt and allergic to colours... but in reality... they looked like 1970s pop singers.

Seriously, thread time.🧵

Photo: Roberto Fortuna It's tricky finding out what Vikings really looked like, few images and even fewer original items of their clothing & fabric have survived and if they do, they've faded, are discoloured, etc.

Photo: Roberto Fortuna, National Museum of Denmark

A lot of people have asked me about this, so here we go.
It is sort of true but also not.
Let me explain.
First things first, the source here is this German fencing manual created by Hans Talhoffer in 1459: wiktenauer.com/wiki/Talhoffer…
Here are all the images related to women & men doing a bit of combat I found in that book.
And just in case you're wondering, yes this is how I settle disputes as well ;)

Soul crushing story, one I'll never forget and that still gets to me.

Poland, September 1939.
Kazimiera Mika (12) mourns the death of her older sister Anna (14) who was killed in a field in Warsaw during a German air raid.

Warning: heartbreak & horrible photos ahead.
🧵 The photographer who took some of these photos was the American Julien Bryan, who wrote the following about this tragedy:

"As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all.

Game review!

I've been playing 'Medieval Dynasty', a great game set in the middle ages, but there's of course always something to complain about, you know me.
Enjoy this thread.

You can find the game here, its on sale!
store.steampowered.com/app/1129580/Me…
And here is the trailer:

What is wrong with the term "dark ages"?
Here's a thread with a bunch of links that (some better than others) try to explain why so many historians get a rash when they hear that term.
Let me know if you find good articles/threads that should be added (or removed).
🧵🧵🧵 I've stumbled upon them during my research, some say some great things about the subject but that doesn't mean I agree with everything being said.
But they all in one way or another explain why "dark ages" is just an incorrect biased misnomer and I'm tired of sharing links.
So:🧵

You know I like explaining that the past wasn't as bad as everyone thinks, but they weren't this great either.
Yes living in a city today can be hell.
But most "peasants" didn't live in big houses in the country like in the picture below.
Let's see what we can find out.
🧵 This is the original image, yes that is one gorgeous building.
The description at the bottom says 'Bauernhaus in Schwarzwald', which means it's a farmhouse.
Comparing a farm and life in the country with life in the city is ridiculous.

Today we went for a visit to the town of Appingedam.
It's a rather nice place with a bit of history so I took a few photos some of you might enjoy looking at.
Beike had fun.

https://t.co/pMFGfaZ06fen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appingedam
The city is famous for its hanging kitchens.
Originally the buildings were warehouses but when they were turned into homes there wasn't really space for kitchens so people just stuck em at the back.

Photo thread about photographer Maria Austria.
Born in 1915 in Karlsbad she fled to Amsterdam in 1937.
She was Jewish so working as a photographer became difficult when the Nazis invaded in 1940.
She went into hiding & worked for the resistance forging documents & as a courier. After the war Maria continued her photography career and managed to record the changing face of daily life in the Netherlands.
In 1954 she photographed Anne Frank's hiding place, the annex where she and her family and others hid during the war.
This was Anne's room:

One of the (main) reasons the Vikings had horns on their helmets story really took off and stuck, is because a certain prof. Doepler made them part of the costumes for Wagner's opera in the 1860s.
Here are some of these absolutely awesome designs: " Hëy bäbe, want a meäd?"