Circumcision in ancient Egypt

circumcision
The act of circumcision may have been performed as part of a ceremony akin to the rites of passage in the 'age-grade systems' of many band and tribal societies. A stele of the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 Be) mentions the circumcision of 120 boys at one time,
which perhaps implies a group of individuals of varying ages. It has been suggested, however, that boys would usually have been about fourteen years old when they were circumcised. The mummy of a young prince aged about eleven, which was found in the tomb of Amenhotep II, is uncircumcised and retains the SIDELOCK OF YOUTH hairstyle, which was therefore perhaps worn by young boys only in the years before circumcision.
The ceremony itself, for which the Egyptian term was sebi, was carried out using a curved flint knife similar to those employed by embalmers. On the basis of this archaizing equipment, it has been argued that circumcision was essentially a religious act for the Egyptians. On the other hand, it may have simply been a practical expedient, given the fact that metal knives would hardly have surpassed a newly-knapped flint in terms of sharpness. Moreover, considering the lack of antiseptics, if the cut was as clean and rapid as possible, the healing process would probably have been more likely to be successful.
The 6th-Dynasty mastaba of the vizier Ankhmahor at Saqqara conrains a circumcision scene, which appears to show both the cutting and the application of some sort of ointment, although the latter is unclear. From at least the Late Period onwards (747-332 Be) it became compulsory for priests to be circumcised, as part of the purification necessary for the performance of their temple duties, and this further illustrates that it was not compulsory for children to be circumcised at adolescence. In the Roman period, a ban on circumcision (from which only priests were exempt) appears to have been introduced.
The Egyptians themselves may have regarded circumcision as an ethnic 'identifier', judging from depictions of foreigners in battle scenes of the New Kingdom, such as those depicted in the mortuary temple of Rameses III at MEDINET I-lABU. In enumerating enemy dead, the Egyptians differentiated between the circumcised Semites, whose hands were cut ofT, and the uncircumcised foes -notably Libyans whose penises were removed for the counting.
Although Strouhal suggests that some ancient Egyptian texts refer to 'uncircumcised' virgins and the Roman writer Strabo mentions that female circumcision was practiced by the Egyptians, no physical evidence of the operation has yet been found on surviving female mummies.
F. JONCKHEERE, 'La circoncision des anciens Egyptiens', eentaurus [(1951),212-34.
O. BARDIS, 'Circumcision in ancient Egypt', Indlana Journal for the history of Medicine 12/ I (1967),22-3.
E. STROUHAL, Lift in ancient Egypt (Cambridge, 1992),28-9.


The Greek historian Herodotus mentions that the Egyptians practiced circumcision 'for cleanliness' sake, preferring to be clean rather than comely'; and the practice may well have been inaugurated purely for reasons of hygiene. Nevertheless, depictions of certain uncircumcised individuals in the decoration of Old Kingdom mastaba tombs suggest that the operation was not universal.