> 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.