Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
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Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#2Because they were built by Africans with wide noses. When they were conquered, they were altered to look more like the new king/god. See: Sphinx's tiny head
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#3A lot of ancient statues, not only Egyptian, have broken noses. Henry Fielding has a joke about it in A Journey From This World to the Next. The narrator, as is customary, pays his first visit in the next world to the disorder that killed him. Seeing the statues of famous victims, he imagines them antiques, but learns that, no, they are quite recent.
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#4I'm not sure the hypothesis stands up to scrutiny (apart from being based solely off of conjecture, that is).
In the article, they link to the MOMA exhibit captioned "Yuny and his wife" [0], which depicts a male with a smashed-off nose seated next to, presumably, his wife with her nose very much intact.
If robbers smashed the noses off of statues so their likenesses would not live in the afterlife to seek revenge, why would only one of the two people depicted in the same carving have their nose smashed off?
[0]: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/unknown-egyptian-yuny-and-his-...
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#5You see this in India at every temple that was raided by Muslims. The logic being that breaking the nose would make the "idol" unfit for worship.
There probably are a lot of examples in the North (they are now part of some "secular" Mosque complex), but it's very apparent in some of the Hoysala temples that were partially/fully destroyed (esp. Halebidu), and in Vijayanagara. It's really quite sad. Then again, I suppose this adequately reflects India's state as a civilization... so SNAFU.
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#6A conjecture that I entertain, allowing a bit of validity to Julian Jaynes' "bicameral mind" theory:
Egyptians back then could literally hear commands from statues as representations of the gods. Maybe breaking off the noses muted the voices (not sure why noses and not mouths). Warring factions might have wanted to mute opposing gods and install their own.
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#7I'm not sure the hypothesis stands up to scrutiny (apart from being based solely off of conjecture, that is). In the article, they link to the MOMA exhibit captioned "Yuny and his wife" [0], which depicts a male with a smashed-off nose seated next to, presumably, his wife with her nose very much intact. If robbers smashed the noses off of statues so their likenesses would not live in the afterlife to seek revenge, wh…
Because they were afraid of Yuni and not his wife.
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#8I was going to mention about Napoleon's troops shooting the nose off the Sphinx, but did a search to confirm:
> ...he face of the Sphinx was vandalized in 1378 A.D. by Mohammed Sa'im al-Dahr, a "fanatical sufi of the oldest and most highly respected sufi convent of Cairo." [0]
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#9I had the question, after visiting Rome, of why so many Roman statues lacked a penis. Found this. But I'm sure that in many cases it was just due to the fact that appendages on statues are more easily damaged - whether nose or penis.
http://ourromanadventure.blogspot.com/2009/10/where-are-all-...
Re: Why Do So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses?
#10I'm not sure the hypothesis stands up to scrutiny (apart from being based solely off of conjecture, that is). In the article, they link to the MOMA exhibit captioned "Yuny and his wife" [0], which depicts a male with a smashed-off nose seated next to, presumably, his wife with her nose very much intact. If robbers smashed the noses off of statues so their likenesses would not live in the afterlife to seek revenge, wh…
Edit: Apparently Egypt was more progressive than I thought. Women did have more rights than most ancient societies.
Women were considered property of their husbands. If the husband is dead the wife can’t do anything because she is masterless.