How common was circumcision in non-Jewish Bronze Age cultures?

by SnowedInByEdward

I've always heard the old adage that Jewish ritualized circumcision emerged from the practice of circumcising infants to prevent infections and other diseases. This always seemed like a justification added after the fact to give rational explanation to a law that never had much rational backing to it. Am I wrong? How common was the practice of either ritualized or non ritualized circumcision among other non-Jewish bronze age cultures?

sorry, extra clarification: primarily I'm asking about levantine/adjacent mediterranean Semitic cultures, but would also be super interested to hear other perspectives!

Malthus1

Circumcision was certainly practiced in ancient Egypt. See for example:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26272374

How common the practice was is hard to say: it was certainly practiced over a very long period of time, but actual depictions if it are not common - though human remains showing it has been done do occur, because of mummification.

The exact reasons for the ritual are also unknown.

Herodotus, for example, reported that the Egyptians of his time practiced Circumcision “... for the sake of cleanliness, considering it better to be cleanly than attractive”. In other words, according to him, the practice had a practical importance for hygiene purposes, rather than a ritual importance - though the question remains of how much stock to put in a Greek traveller’s knowledge of the purpose of such a procedure (he often got these things wrong - for example, he thought Scythians hot-boxed their tents with “hemp seed” as a sort of steam bath!).

It could also have marked a rite of passage into adulthood, or have some other ritual significance.

The Egyptians has a strong influence on the ancient Jews, and it is possible the two are related in sone manner (it is commonly speculated that the Jews got the ritual from contact with Egypt, but evidence is lacking).

All that can be said with certainly is that the ancient Jews lived in a cultural landscape where at least some neighbouring cultures used the practice, but evidently not as an ethnic marker.