The article describes ritual icon desecration where by breaking off the nose, the spirit of the person or god depicted attempting to inhabit the desecrated icon

The article describes ritual icon desecration where by breaking off the nose, the spirit of the person or god depicted attempting to inhabit the desecrated icon couldn't breathe, and thus would be denied re-joining the land of the living there. They'd also ideally remove the head completely but you'd still break off the nose if that's all you could do. When power changed in Egypt, those who came after would desecrate the icons (statues, images) of those who came before to cement their legitimacy and prevent worship or offerings being made to the prior powers-that-be, as it was believed it prevented their spirits from re-inhabiting those icons, which would dissuade people making offerings in the first place. Whether the new rulers believed this too could be debated, but the impact was the same.