Was it common for Pharos and or priests in Egypt to modify change or edit previous hieroglyphics (for any reason)?

by LegendarySlooch
Gilad1

Yes.

Pharaohs would chisel out the names of Pharaohs or people who built monuments to attribute the creation to them self. The most famous of these would be Ramses the Great who is known as The Great Chiseler by archaeologists.

You also had rulers such as Horemheb(sp) who went to alter the Kings list and literally dismantled temples that referenced the 3 (arguably 4) previous rulers. The dismantling bit was he dismantled a temple to Aknaten(sp) and used that blocks to build a new temple. He made sure the old chiseled sides were hidden in the new building.

This next bit may not be related to your question, but it may so I figured I'll mention it anyways. We also have examples of Egyptians adding hieroglyphs to monuments such as the pyramids of the old kingdom. The most famous of these is a son of Ramses the great who essentially labeled the pyramids of Giza among other monuments in fear of people forgetting who built these monuments.

Ay (king tut's successor) chiseled out tut's name from his tomb and took it for himself and replaced tut's name with his own.

I know that coffins / sarcophagi from robbed tombs were reused from time to time. I don't remember if they removed the previous name or not. I know there is at least one case where the sarcophagi is labeled one king but the coffin is another royal person. I don't remember which it was, but I think it was a Ramses not of the 18th dynasty's coffin that got reused after the mummy hoarding that the ancient Egyptians did in the later dynasties due to weakness and tomb robbing.

Source: Lectures by Dr. Bob Brier: The history of ancient Egypt Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt

dontVoteBarack2016

Horemheb mutilated the cartouches of Akhenaten in an attempt to punish him in the afterlife. There were also attempts to efface inscriptions of any mention of him or his family. Monuments that depicted Hatshepsut as a male were effaced by succeeding conservative administrations.

reaperkronos1

Perhaps one of the most well known examples of Pharaohs having their hieroglyphics being defaced would have to be Hatshepsut. Thutmose III and his successors endeavored to wipe Hatshepsut from historical records, and as has already been mentioned defaced statues of her.