Talk:Meni (high official)

A fact from Meni (high official) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 November 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the tomb of the overseer of every cultivated place and every desert place (stele pictured) threatens grave robbers with crocodiles and snakes?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/November. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Meni (high official).

Ancient Egypt Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ancient Egypt, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Egyptological subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ancient EgyptWikipedia:WikiProject Ancient EgyptTemplate:WikiProject Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt articles

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WikiProject Ancient Egypt to-do list:

Needed articles.

We should have an article on every pyramid and every nome in Ancient Egypt. I'm sure the rest of us can think of other articles we should have.

Cleanup.

To start with, most of the general history articles badly need attention. And I'm told that at least some of the dynasty articles need work. Any other candidates?

Standardize the Chronology.

A boring task, but the benefit of doing it is that you can set the dates !(e.g., why say Khufu lived 2589-2566? As long as you keep the length of his reign correct, or cite a respected source, you can date it 2590-2567 or 2585-2563)

Stub sorting

Anyone? I consider this probably the most unimportant of tasks on Wikipedia, but if you believe it needs to be done . . .

Data sorting.

This is a project I'd like to take on some day, & could be applied to more of Wikipedia than just Ancient Egypt. Take one of the standard authorities of history or culture -- Herotodus, the Elder Pliny, the writings of Breasted or Kenneth Kitchen, & see if you can't smoothly merge quotations or information into relevant articles. Probably a good exercise for someone who owns one of those impressive texts, yet can't get access to a research library.

Biography

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by RoySmith (talk) 03:32, 7 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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Comment or view
Article history

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Stele depicting Meni

... that biographical inscriptions found in the tomb of Meni (stele pictured) include the phrases "I saved the weak from the hand of him who was stronger than he" and "I was noble"? Source: Leprohon, Ronald J. (2005). Texts from the Pyramid Age. Leiden, Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-13048-7
- ALT1: ... that biographical inscriptions found in the tomb of Meni (stele pictured) include the phrase "I was noble"? Source: same
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Jacobus Capitein
- Comment: Other hooks likely possible, this is just what struck me as most unusual (and the unusualness is attested to in the article).

Created by Qoan (talk). Nominated by LordPeterII (talk) at 21:01, 30 October 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Length	Newness	Cited hook	Interest	Sources	Neutrality	Plagiarism/paraphrase
✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

~14,000 char, created Oct 25 date within bounds, hookfact accepted in good faith, only minor earwig trigger is attributed and quoted appropriately

Basically it is fine and ready to go, except I am mildly underwhelmed by the hook. Suggestion:

ALT2 ... that the curse text of the tomb of Meni (stele pictured) threatens grave robbers with crocodiles, snakes and the judgment of a god?

jengod (talk) 23:41, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Jengod: Conversely, I am rather not surprised that an Ancient Egyptian grave inscription threatens robbers with all sorts of crocodile curses and stuff. I mean, I think that most Pyramids and the like had these? But I get what you mean, maybe it's more interesting to the general public. Let me suggest some other hooks:

ALT3 ... that the overseer of every cultivated place and every desert place (stele pictured) threatens grave robbers with crocodiles and snakes?
ALT4 ... that the sole companion (stele pictured) threatens grave robbers with crocodiles and snakes?

Not very different but shorter (I think the "god" part is rather the usual, crocodiles not so much), and could include any of his titles as piped text. –LordPeterII (talk) 20:07, 2 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I love ALT3 and approve it forthwith! (Yes I was thinking of the general audience who doesn’t know much Egyptology but does enjoy creepy-crawlies and Drama.) ALT3 has a wonderful grandiosity to it which I think is the happy medium between popular understanding of ancient Egypt and what might captivate scholars. Thank you for this excellent nomination and participating so graciously on the hook workshop. Cheers. jengod (talk) 20:19, 2 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]