Ankhmahor

Court official. c.2300 BC.

    Ankhmahor (surname Sesi) possessed an unique and interesting mastaba-tomb in the 'Street of Tombs', excavated by V.Loret in 1899; this lay north of *Teti's pyramid at Saqqara. It is sometimes known as the 'Tomb of the Physician' because of the subject matter of the wall-scenes. These represent the usual range of activities that appear in tombs, including farming, sacrificing animals and mourning the deceased, but in one room there is a unique set of reliefs which depict surgical operations.

    There are two scenes which illustrate circumcision of an adult: in one, a man entitled 'circumcising priest' anaesthatises the patient with ointment while, in the other the operation is performed. According to *Herodotus, the Egyptians were the first people to practise circumcision, although it was probably not compulsory for everyone. It was obligatory for those of the royal and priestly classes and was probably carried out by the priests (as in these scenes) in the temples. The *Jews may have acquired the custom from the Egyptians.

    Two other reliefs in this tomb show two men undergoing a treatment which has been variously interpreted as surgery, pedicure and manicure, or massage. These all cause problems of interpretation, for tomb scenes usually represented events or activities of a pleasurable nature in a person's life, or reflected his professional status and importance which he wanted to recreate by means of magic in his afterlife. Other explanations have to be considered when the scenes depict painful operations. One possibility is that circumcision had a particular religious significance for Ankhmahor; alternatively, he may have been a surgeon, but he bore no medical titles and appears to have held an important political position as a minister.

BIBL. Herodotus, The Histories. Bk. ii, 104; Ghalioungui, P. Magic and medicine in ancient Egypt. London: 1963 pp. 96-8.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David