I know that the probability is higher that a meteorite would hit something of great cultural significance, and that perhaps the broken nose led to some of that significance. But it still seems really, really unlikely.
Isn't it a lot more likely that something routine cause the damage, and that a story was made up afterward?
It is common to blame Napoleonic cannoneers for damage to its face, but apparently that is slander. We know that early Christians were very fond of knocking the nose off of anything that might attract offerings. I don't know of any surviving drawings that show the nose intact.
> Mark Lehner says that while it is not known when or by whom the Sphinx's nose was broken off, careful examination shows that somebody used long rods or chisels to purposefully do so.
Ancient Egyptians also vandalized more-ancient statuary, but they usually preferred to chisel out the attached name and carve their current king's name in its place so his ka would get the benefit of offerings. Ramses II was especially known for "tagging" ancient statuary; egyptologists, oddly, routinely accept such tags as proof he was responsible for the item.
https://suzannelovellinc.com/blog/where-did-egyptian-statues...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/28/the-darkening-... [Note: this article accepts as factual late-Christian exaggerations of Roman persecution.]
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-egyptian-statu... [Note: this article confuses details about worship of Amun.]
> didn’t believe that people of African descent
Sounds like an absurd take considering how fascinated Europeans generally were with ancient Egyptian civilization in the 19th century...
I’m not arguing about the wide scale vandalism. But this bit seems almost entirely like conjecture and generally nonsensical given in Christianity that widespread belief in demons/witches/etc. was a late middle ages/reformation period development. It’s existence wasn’t really compatible with early Christian theology and worldview.
Belief in demons and the supernatural (except the Christian god of course) was mainly a relict of paganism at that point e.g. pagan Romans were really into witchunts and the like (which is something the early church tried to crackdown with varying and in many cases not that great degree of success). From the Church’s perspective believing that demons can or exist was almost as bad as worshiping them.
In any case, even a Christian priest who personally disbelieved in spirits occupying statuary would resent competition from pagan priests performing sacrifices. Making the statuary unserviceable was good for business, and being seen doing it with no divine retribution was good theater.
Even though the probably of a meteorite hitting somewhere is high, the probability of hitting somewhere in particular is tiny.
- "What's the probability that a meteor hits an object of cultural significance?" -> vastly lower than the probability that the meteor hits something of non-cultural significance.
- "What's the probability that a meteor hits a given object of cultural significance?" -> Proportional to object size + age.
Maybe the sphinx isn't a bad candidate for the only object of cultural significance impacted by a meteor? Still seems unusually improbable however.
The same reasoning applies to two UUIDs or Git hashes matching by accident: of negligible probability, yet easily proven if it happens.
Is there any evidence?
I think the headdress was supposed to have been covered in gold leaf, which might have attracted lightning strikes. Just cracking from normal weathering and falling off is the most likely cause, though. It seems like a thing that they would have liked to blame on something dramatic like a thunderbolt.
Regardless, I realize other posters linked to pretty good evidence that this isn't what happened.
https://ukantarcticmeteorites.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/new-p...