Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
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Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
1–10 of 140 posts
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#2This is something I've noticed on a lot of older statues. Not just Egyptian ones.
This is pretty far from the standard narrative, but I think something happened 300 years ago. A different group moved in, and destroyed the more beautiful creations of the older group. Where there were statues on churches, these were replaced with gargoyles.
I think the nose destruction you raise is a part of that - its a simple way to 'uglify' a thing of beauty. Those Egyptian statues are representation of people that were in perfect proportions and display idealised geometry.
https://www.emotions.64g.ru/prof3/pro04en.htm
So, I think they were beautiful and destroyed intentionally by whoever conquered or moved in over the preceding group.
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#3Interesting.
A thing I had heard over the years is that noses were kind of phallic (which seems pretty obvious), so if you were interested in a symbolic neutering, taking the nose off was both physically simple to do and symbolically potent.
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#4This is something I've noticed on a lot of older statues. Not just Egyptian ones. This is pretty far from the standard narrative, but I think something happened 300 years ago. A different group moved in, and destroyed the more beautiful creations of the older group. Where there were statues on churches, these were replaced with gargoyles. I think the nose destruction you raise is a part of that - its a simple way to…
Is it silly to assume that a nose would break of the easiest? Like how stretched out arms are usually broken. These statues are very old.
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#5Anyone care to write an abstract for this article?
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#6This article gives reasons why the statues were broken but doesn't give a convincing reason why the noses are particularly targeted (sure, you breathe through the nose - but you also breathe through the mouth).
It's now commonly suggested that the statue's noses most obviously indicated African heritage: that they were representing Black Africans - and white Christians wanted to erase that heritage.
I find it surprising that this apparently-scholarly article wouldn't touch upon that.
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#7This is something I've noticed on a lot of older statues. Not just Egyptian ones. This is pretty far from the standard narrative, but I think something happened 300 years ago. A different group moved in, and destroyed the more beautiful creations of the older group. Where there were statues on churches, these were replaced with gargoyles. I think the nose destruction you raise is a part of that - its a simple way to…
Is it silly to assume that a nose would break of the easiest? Like how stretched out arms are usually broken. These statues are very old.
At a glance, the black ones appear to be made of granite - this is very tough! You might wonder how they were ever able to make such perfect representations with very hard material 3000+ years ago. And to then polish them so well that the polish still looks good after all this time, as on the picture at the top of that article.
However (and whenever) they were made, once made, these are hard and most definitely do NOT break accidentally. Well, not so many of them as that, anyway. If it is granite, I think you could drop a statue like that and it would break your wood or marble floor, rather than break off accidentally.
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#8Anyone care to write an abstract for this article?
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Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#9This article gives reasons why the statues were broken but doesn't give a convincing reason why the noses are particularly targeted (sure, you breathe through the nose - but you also breathe through the mouth). It's now commonly suggested that the statue's noses most obviously indicated African heritage: that they were representing Black Africans - and white Christians wanted to erase that heritage. I find it surpris…
"it's now commonly suggested" a lot of things are commonly suggested today that have no basis in reality or no representation in real history.
This is no different than Ancient Aliens where all of history is changed to be full of Aliens. Creating what you want to see out of scant evidence to support the claim. "Connecting the dots" to say what you want.
Taking history and deciding that "race" is the reason something happens... doesn't change history to make that assertion true.
Noses broke because "race"? False
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/29/fac...
Re: Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues?
#10Anyone care to write an abstract for this article?
Maybe the take-away is that in different eras statues were broken in different ways for different purposes.
Various Egyptian groups broke each other's statues, which they fully understood, for instance breaking the left hand of gods understood to be giving things, and the right hand of those receiving things, to prevent them from performing their function. And often digging out the inscription of the name of the king depicted -- which implies they could read it, both when it was a new regime, and when it was grave robbers (who wished to escape retribution in the afterlife).
Early Christians feared these and other pagan statues. They thought it more powerful to break just the nose, or to shave statues of Greek gods they could recognise, rather than decapitate or completely destroy them.
After the Arab conquest, they were mainly seen as just building material, and seated statues tended to be broken off to make cubic pieces for re-use. With no special regard for their identity, nor attempts to erase names. And, aside, it took about 1000 years they say for Islam to become the majority faith, not just the ruling one.