In the early Christian period in Egypt, between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the indigenous gods inhabiting the sculptures were feared as pagan demons; to dismantle paganism, its ritual tools -- especially statues making offerings -- were attacked. "They did what they could," Bleiberg said. Harsh winds, shifting mud and sand dunes, the flowing of water, and thousands of years of feet and hands pitter-pattering over relatively delicate materials such as marble and stone will most likely have a pretty damaging effect. Discerning the difference between accidental damage and deliberate vandalism came down to recognizing such patterns. "The consistency of the patterns where damage is found in sculpture suggests that it's purposeful," Bleiberg said, citing myriad political, religious, personal and criminal motivations for acts of vandalism. In statues intended to show human beings making offerings to gods, the left arm -- most commonly used to make offerings -- is cut off so the statue's function can't be performed (the right hand is often found axed in statues receiving offerings). Statues intended to depict humans making offerings to gods are often found with their left arm cut off. In turn, the right arm of statues depicting a deity receiving offerings is often found damaged as well.“In the Pharaonic period, there was a clear understanding of what sculpture was supposed to do,” said Bleiberg, adding that evidence of intentionally damaged mummies spoke to a “very basic cultural belief that damaging the image of a person damages the person represented.”Indeed, warriors would often make wax effigies of their enemies and destroy them before battle. He had taken for granted that the sculptures were damaged; his training in Egyptology encouraged visualizing how a statue would look if it were still intact. By Marco Margaritoff. '” “Imagery in public spaces is a reflection of who has the power to tell the story of what happened and what should be remembered,” he said. Many of these ancient statues have been exposed to these elements for a very long time, whil… Written by Julia Wolkoff This article was published in partnership with Artsy, the global platform for discovering and collecting art. The long-held belief that even the giant sphinxes had lost their noses due to wear and tear isn't actually accurate, but rather these …

Statues and reliefs were "a meeting point between the supernatural and this world," he said, only inhabited, or "revivified," when the ritual is performed. It wasn’t uncommon for pharaohs to decree that anyone threatening their likeness would be terribly punished. He added that these defacements were probably motivated by personal, political, and religious reasons. Likewise, how-to hieroglyphics provided instructions for warriors about to enter battle: Make a wax effigy of the enemy, then destroy it. "A statue of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut wearing a "khat" headdress.Speaking to the futility of such measures, Bleiberg appraised the skill evidenced by the iconoclasts. "Egyptian state religion," Bleiberg explained, was seen as "an arrangement where kings on Earth provide for the deity, and in return, the deity takes care of Egypt." But invasions by outside forces, power struggles between dynastic rulers and other periods of upheaval left their scars. "They were not recklessly and randomly striking out works of art." "It really didn't work that well. "Archaeologists unearth a mysterious sarcophagus in EgyptThe understanding of these statues changed over time as cultural mores shifted. Flat reliefs often feature damaged noses too, supporting the idea that the vandalism was targeted.The ancient Egyptians, it's important to note, ascribed important powers to images of the human form. New Study Finds That So Many Egyptian Statues Have Broken Noses Because Of Intentional Defacement. To hammer the ears off a statue of a god would make it unable to hear a prayer. "They were not vandals," he clarified.

'Gods in Color' returns antiquities to their original, colorful grandeur"In the Pharaonic period, there was a clear understanding of what sculpture was supposed to do," Bleiberg said. Several archaeologists have suggested erosion could be one of the main reasons this happens to many ancient statues. Rulers were concerned about their historical legacy and the defacing of their statues helped ambitious up-and-comers to rewrite history, in essence erasing their predecessors so as to cement their own power.For instance, “Hatshepsut’s reign presented a problem for the legitimacy of Thutmose III’s successor, and Thutmose solved this problem by virtually eliminating all imagistic and inscribed memory of Hatshepsut,” said Bleiberg. Recorded textual evidence also points toward the general anxiety of the time regarding one’s own image being damaged. Perhaps we can learn from the pharaohs; how we choose to rewrite our national stories might just take a few acts of iconoclasm. The precise chisel work found on many of the artifacts suggests that they were done by skilled laborers.“They were not vandals,” said Bleiberg. After the Muslim invasion in the 7th century, scholars surmise, Egyptians had lost any fear of these ancient ritual objects. Of course, that didn’t stop those eager to damage them from doing so.“They did what they could,” said Bleiberg. The intentional destruction of this depiction, then, could be seen as having been done to “deactivate an image’s strength.”Bleiberg also explained how tombs and temples served as primary reservoirs for sculptures and reliefs that held these ritual purposes. "We are witnessing the empowerment of many groups of people with different opinions of what the proper narrative is."