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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.
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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 August 2023 and 8 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Venusweet (article contribs).
It has come to my attention that perhaps the identification of Tefnut as a goddess of moisture is not supported by any primary evidence. I haven't done a ton of digging into it yet--but I can say that none of the epithets in the lexikon der ägyptischen götter und götterbezeichnungen mention anything to do with moisture, and no cited texts in entries regarding her that I have seen mention anything about water either. A friend recalled that an Egyptologist had also denied any actual association with water. Her name is also identified by the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae to stem from the root Tfn "To spit", suggesting an original meaning "She who spits" and later "She who was spit out". It was also suggested to me that the spitting refers not to moisture, but to fire, as she has many more epithets referencing heat in her role as the Eye of Ra than anything else. Does anyone have any further reading discussing her actual primary descriptions? The vast number of articles and media online repeating the moisture claim is also somewhat concerning if this is the case. GhostFluff454 (talk) 03:43, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good point. The claim in the lead section is sourced to The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, but its entry for Tefnut (at least in the revised edition from 2005, p. 156) only says "Her connection with moisture is tenuously established from her position among deities representing cosmic elements and hints in inscriptions such as in the passage from the Pyramid Texts where the goddess creates pure water for the king’s feet from her vagina (= the morning dew?)." The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Richard H. Wilkinson (p. 183) says essentially the same thing. It does specify the text in question: "PT 2065", which must mean Pyr. 2065 because the numbers for whole spells don't go that high.
It seems that what Hart means by "her position among deities representing cosmic elements" is that Shu's name is related to a word that can mean "dry" (per Genesis in Egypt by James P. Allen, p. 9). That's also implied by the relevant passage in Egyptian Mythology by Geraldine Pinch (pp. 195–196), which says "Shu was the god of dry, life-giving air and sunlight, who first separated the earth from the sky. Tefnut may have been associated with some types of moisture, such as morning dew." I've changed the lead section to reflect the uncertainty. A. Parrot (talk) 16:11, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I see now that the Pyramid Texts reference is already in the article, with a spell number as well as a phrase number, which makes it easier to track down. Looking at the whole spell, it seems even more like a generic ritual purification, the kind of thing a lot of deities can participate in, and in this case, Shu participates along with Tefnut! But evaluating primary sources is not our job. A. Parrot (talk) 16:29, 5 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 August 2023 and 8 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Venusweet (article contribs).