The desecration of the individuals' monuments in ancient Egypt

Abstract EN

For the ancient Egyptians, violence was a part of their culture.

The violation of monuments was probably made throughout whole history of Egypt.

Destructed monuments appear in different shapes.

There were campaigns of intentional destruction.

Monuments whether royal tombs, temples or individuals' tombs suffered from the destruction of various shapes such as reuse, usurpation or desecration (systemic destruction of the sacred records).

This research mainly focuses on the desecration of individuals' monuments in ancient Egypt.

Here, the research discusses the definition, reasons, and methods of the desecration applied to the monuments of individuals in ancient Egypt.

Briefly, we find that the motives of the desecration varied through different parts of the history.

In the old Kingdom, the desecration was made for damnatio memoriae as revenge of the owners for personal reasons or punishment against political conspirators in Pepi I era.

In the Middle Kingdom, there are no direct or clear desecrated records, because of the complete destruction of the monuments in the weakness periods.

In the New Kingdom, the most common motives were the result of the proscription of Hatshepsut and her followers or the revolution of king Akhenaton and his followers through the erasure of gods especially Amon.

The desecrated individuals' monuments took place through the erasure of the owner's name, title or figure; through the removal of the owner's family (wives, sons, daughters and retainers); through the desecration of the god's name, title or figure and priests; through the animals' figure; through the king's name, title or figure; or through any element from the nine human elements or the offerings.

Through this research, we found that the desecration had happened according to the targeted area not to the era.