Question about very ancient customs.

[Mr. Peterman]

I've been reading this book and I'm trying to figure out some stuff. I would like to know if customs such as animal sacrifice and circumcision were practiced in the fertile crescent before the Chaldeans settled there. I'm not even sure who was there first, I'm a little confused.:) If it wasn't practiced there beforehand, is there evidence that the Chaldeans carried such customs with them? Also I've read that Egypt and Ethiopia had such customs, and I'm wondering if anyone in those areas practiced those customs before the 3rd dynasty of Egypt. Thank you for your help.

[Michaelangelica]

You are unlikely to find arceological evidence of that as the penis is boneless ( had to get that one in; opps did it again).

so you have to get amedical parus or stone tablet

 

there is a very old medical Papyrus extant called the Ebers Medical Papyrus

The Ebers Medical Papyrus. Named after the German Egyptologist Georg Moritz Ebers who acquired the Papyrus in 1872 from Edwin Smith. The oldest known scientific treatise containing case studies on anatomy and the appropriate remedies, together with 700 formulae for making medicines are contained within the 110 page scroll. Dating from c 1534 BCE with a passage mentioning the 9th year of the reign of Amenhotep I. Thought to have been copied from a much earlier document as it has a reference to the pharaoh Den, who reigned during the 1st dynasty c.3000 BCE. The document, written in hieratic script measures some 20.23m in length and 30cm in height.

 

It contains a remarkably accurate description of the circulatory system, noting that the heart is the centre of the blood supply. Surprisingly, it also has a small section on psychiatry, recognising conditions like depression, described as "a sickness of the heart" along with other fields such as obstetrics, contraception, dentistry, and the digestive system.

Medicine and healthcare in Ancient Egypt

 

Also the The Edwin Smith Papyrus

Google Image Result for http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptmedicalkit.gif

 

Finding a translation might be difficult.

 

What did the Israelite, Egyptian "slaves", say about circumcision in their history book?

[modest]

Chaldea (if you're using the word in the biblical sense) was in the fertile crescent. Chaldeans didn't migrate there—they were there already. They were Sumerian in modern day Iraq by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

 

Nevertheless, I do believe it's true that the Sumerian religion of the Ubaid period did influence later Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hebrew religions as far as animal sacrifice. The Sumerians made ziggurats on which they sacrificed animals to sustain their gods.

 

In Egypt the tradition seems to be a bit different. They killed animals and mummified them for passage into the afterlife which could be considered animal sacrifice, but the sentiment is much different. They were not killing animals to sustain their gods or to purify the person giving up the sacrifice as was common in the more eastern fertile crescent. Here's something that talks a bit about that:

 

The History of Animal Sacrifice

 

And, about Chaldea,

 

Chaldea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

And the Sumerian religion,

 

Sumerian Religion

 

~modest

[Mr. Peterman]

I've got a more specific question for everyone. What is the oldest evidence of circumcision specifically in Babylon or the fertile crescent from sources that come from that region, instead of Egyptian sources? I'm asking this because I believe the standard historical timeline could be in error and some Babylonian region sources could be older than the currently oldest Egyptian ones. Thank you.

[Turtle]

I've got a more specific question for everyone. What is the oldest evidence of circumcision specifically in Babylon or the fertile crescent from sources that come from that region, instead of Egyptian sources? I'm asking this because I believe the standard historical timeline could be in error and some Babylonian region sources could be older than the currently oldest Egyptian ones. Thank you.

 

I don't recall any circumcision in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but since it is the oldest written story we know of it, is also the oldest written story of animal sacrifice.

 

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Spiritual Biography by W. T. S. Thackara

Ishtar demanded she be given the Bull of Heaven (9) to destroy Gilgamesh, or else she would smash the gates of the Netherworld: the dead would rise and devour the living. Anu capitulated and placed the bull's nose rope in Ishtar's hands, who promptly drove it down to Uruk.

When the Bull landed on earth, it snorted so powerfully a hole opened up swallowing one hundred men. A second snort -- two hundred men swallowed up. A third snort and a hole opened before Enkidu, who then seized the bull by its thick tail, crying out to Gilgamesh, "Friend, we have made ourselves a great name. How shall we overthrow him?" Like a matador, mighty Gilgamesh thrust his knife in one swift blow to its neck, just behind the horns. Crashing down, the bull heaved a mighty sigh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu tore out its heart and set it before Shamash.

 

Ishtar cursed Gilgamesh; he had slandered her and killed the Bull of Heaven. When Enkidu heard her cursing, he tore out the bull's thigh and threw it in her face. Ishtar propped up the thigh and, together with her temple courtesans, set up a great lamentation. Meanwhile Gilgamesh claimed the horns, the symbol of mastery and wisdom, and hung them in the room of his rulership. Gilgamesh and Enkidu washed their hands in the Euphrates; they embraced, and rode triumphantly through the streets of Uruk. Gilgamesh, the best-formed of heroes; Enkidu, the most powerful among men.

 

Thus ends the sixth tablet, the midpoint of the twelve-tablet story -- an important junction marking the transition from the temptations and trials of this world to the greater mysteries of death and rebirth.

 

The main themes of Humbaba, the Cedar Forest, and the Bull of Heaven were skillfully synthesized in the later Greek story of Theseus and the Minotaur, an allegory about the conquest and mastery of one's animal nature in the labyrinthian "forest" of incarnated life. To prevent the annual sacrifice of seven youths and seven maidens (representing the bipolar principles of our sevenfold nature), Theseus entered the winding underworld darkness which leads inevitably to the hungry minotaur who would devour him (note the winding features of Humbaba's mask, the "fortress of the intestines," representing our insatiable appetitive nature). Like Gilgamesh, who was urged to "stand against Humbaba" devoid of all but one of his seven protective auras, Theseus was advised to "slay" the minotaur while he slept. His release from the Labyrinth was ensured by a clew of thread, symbol of divine wisdom and guidance, supplied by King Minos' daughter, Ariadne, whom he subsequently married. King (spirit), daughter (wisdom), hero (human soul): saved by yet another version of the "three-ply towrope."

 

Full text: >> Epic of Gilgamesh