Merit-Ptah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Merit-Ptah ("Beloved of Ptah") was thought to be a female chief physician[1] of the pharaoh's court during the Second Dynasty of Egypt, c. 2700 BCE; she is purportedly referred as such on an inscription left on her grave at Saqqara by her son.[2][3][4][5]
However, in recent times it has been argued that she most likely never existed,[6] being a modern 1938 invention of a Canadian feminist called Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead.[7] Jakub Kwiecinski, a historian at the University of Colorado, was cited by secondary source Newsweek arguing that the made-up story of Merit-Ptah exemplifies how "seemingly well-sourced Wikipedia articles" can mislead, and he cautioned against over-reliance on secondary sources.[8]