sentences:  Evidence suggests that circumcision was practiced in the Middle East by the 4th millennium BCE, when the Sumerians and the Semites moved into the area that is modern-day Iraq from the North and West.The earliest historical record of circumcision comes from Egypt, in the form of an image of the circumcision of an adult carved into the tomb of Ankh-Mahor at Saqqara, dating to about 24002300 BCE.Circumcision was done by the Egyptians possibly for hygienic reasons, but also was part of their obsession with purity and was associated with spiritual and intellectual development.