Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2024 September 5

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September 5

Egyptian staves, rods, and sceptres

Other than the was, how many named Egyptian staffs are there? As a matter of interest, there are Burkinabe dead ringers for the was sceptre in “Land of the Flying Masks: Art and Culture in Burkina Faso” by Wheelock and Roy, objects 237-8. Temerarius (talk) 00:35, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

See Ancient Egypt Online - Royal Emblems. Alansplodge (talk) 17:33, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Athlete's signature moves

Modern international athletics has a great deal of television coverage, When the athletes are introduced before a race/ competition and the cameras fall on them, many perform a signature move that usually involves hand gestures and/ or a whole-body pose. Is there a name for these? The well-known Mo Farah#"Mobot" and the lightning bolt were examples of "victory poses", struck after the event. But what are these pre-competition poses called? Thanks. 86.175.173.28 (talk) 19:44, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I thought Usain Bolt's signature move was firing an imaginary arrow from an imaginary bow (plenty of photos of it on Google Images if you search "usain bolt archery pose"), but it doesn't seem to be mentioned on the article. Noah Lyles did a lot of jumping up and down before the 100 meter race in Paris, but I don't know if that was a move or just letting off energy. I'm not sure that I saw a lot of personally-specific gesturing before events in the Paris coverage, just smiling or waving for the camera, Catholics doing the Sign of the Cross, etc. AnonMoos (talk) 23:29, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Showboating:the term "showboat" became slang for someone who wants ostentatious behavior to be seen at all costs. This term is particularly applied in sports, where a showboat (or sometimes "showboater") will do something flashy before (or even instead of) actually achieving his or her goal. The word is also used as a verb. British television show Soccer AM has a section named "Showboat", dedicated to flashy tricks from the past week's games.

I came to the term through https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1825101/2020/05/26/the-simpsons-25-top-sports-episodes/ and Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass

--Error (talk) 18:07, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes, it's mostly on the track, isn't it. Where they're all getting lined up for the 400 metres, 800 metres, something like that? It looks like these guys have been hangin' an' chillin' too long with the dog and dem nigz. Even the blond Scandanavian ones. You expect them to say something like "Fo' Shizzle ma nizzle" or "check it, Mutha", before they take to the blocks? Quite disconcerting. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:33, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Help me!

Lincoln is believed to have said this:

After all, it was Abraham Lincoln himself who proclaimed on June 2, 1861, that "The problem with information that you read on the Internet is that it is not always true."

This makes no sense because there was no such thing as the Internet for more than a century after that. The Internet began in 1969. What is this supposed to mean?? Georgia guy (talk) 22:08, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

It's a meme. It is supposed to represent the fact that you can't believe everything written on the Internet...including things Lincoln said. Knitsey (talk) 22:16, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

You can buy fake historical markers, metal plaques with the text: "On March 2, 1836 Texas declared her independence from Mexico. Wild Comanches roamed the plains, Rangers protected frontier settlements, and this building was not here yet." -- AnonMoos (talk) 23:33, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

It wasn't President Abraham Lincoln. It was Abraham Lincoln (time traveler). (What, no article?) Clarityfiend (talk) 23:59, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Strange things keep happening to editors who create one. —Tamfang (talk) 01:21, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

I hope this is in no way a serious question. But if it is, the OP might find himself the subject of a meme. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:10, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Such as item 15 on this list:[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:30, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

That quote is a common misattribution; it originated from Mark Twain^* Oscar Wilde.

*"I never said that." --Mark Twain 136.54.237.174 (talk) 13:31, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

"I really didn't say everything I said" -- Yogi Berra. AndyTheGrump (talk) 21:25, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

Has the word "meme" replaced the word "joke" in 2024? The kernel of truth in the joke/meme is that Lincoln was an enthusiastic user of the telegraph during the American Civil War, and the telegraph was the earliest form of instant network communication over long distances that eventually led to the internet over a century later. Here's more information. Cullen328 (talk) 16:29, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

The telegrams Lincoln was interested in were from U.S. military people and eyewitness war correspondents. Not sure how relevant that is to sifting through unverified information from random unknown people, which is the characteristic of the Internet age... AnonMoos (talk) 17:53, 8 September 2024 (UTC)

If you look into Lincoln's relationships with his generals, you can see that he was very interested in sorting out poor quality telegrams from better ones. A big part of the reason that Lincoln fired George McClellan as Commanding General of the U.S. Army is because McClellan's telegrams to Lincoln were inaccurate, evasive and dismissive. Part of the reason that Lincoln backed Ulysses Grant so enthusiastically as Commanding General toward the end of the war is that Grant's telegrams to Lincoln were responsive, accurate and respectful, and that Grant carried out Lincoln's strategic vision that was communicated to his generals largely by telegram. Plus, Grant was racking up major victories. Cullen328 (talk) 03:16, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

Starcky tablet

The item is listed "possibly" from Al-Safira on KAI texts, was it not from a secure archaeological context? https://doi.org/10.3406%2Fsyria.1960.5506 And does anyone have better pics than the old black-and-white ones for the other Sefire steles? They're hard to compare. Temerarius (talk) 23:03, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I don't have specific knowledge of the item, but from what I have read, a great many artifacts in the Middle East (and doubtless elsewhere) are illegally excavated (or stolen) and sold on the black market, necessarily without secure provenance - greatly reducing their archeological value, of course. Some of these eventually reach the hands of bona fide scholars, but many are reluctant to even refer to them because they fear it will encourage more thefts.

In some cases, it may be possible by various methods, such as soil analysis, matching of other known fragments, etc., to show where such an artifact likely came from. The long-missing 10th ossuary from the Talpiot tomb, recently shown by soil-residue analysis to be the controversial James Ossuary, is a case in point. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.6.83.137 (talk) 04:22, 6 September 2024 (UTC)