Editing Infanticide (section)

=====Ancient Egypt=====
In Egyptian households, at all social levels, children of both sexes were valued and there is no evidence of infanticide.<ref>''Egypt and the Egyptians'', Emily Teeter, p. 97, Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0521449847}}</ref> The [[Ancient Egyptian religion|religion of the ancient Egyptians]] forbade infanticide and during the [[Greco-Roman]] period they rescued abandoned babies from manure heaps, a common method of infanticide by Greeks or Romans, and were allowed to either adopt them as foundling or raise them as slaves, often giving them names such as "copro -" to memorialize their rescue.<ref>"''Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon"'', Lawrence E. Stager, Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1991</ref> [[Strabo]] considered it a peculiarity of the Egyptians that every child must be reared.<ref>''Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals'', [[William Graham Sumner]], p. 318, org pub 1906, Cosmo 2007, {{ISBN|978-1602067585}}</ref> [[Diodorus]] indicates infanticide was a punishable offence.<ref>''Life in Ancient Egypt'', [[Adolf Erman]], Translated by H. M. Tirard, p. 141, org pub 1894, republished Kessinger 2003, {{ISBN|0-7661-7660-6}}</ref> Egypt was heavily dependent on the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate the land and in years of low inundation, severe famine could occur with breakdowns in social order resulting, notably between {{CE|930–1070}} and {{CE|1180–1350}}. Instances of cannibalism are recorded during these periods, but it is unknown if this happened during the pharaonic era of ancient Egypt.<ref>''Ancient Egypt'', David P. Silverman, p. 13, Oxford University Press US, 2003, {{ISBN|0-19-521952-X}}</ref> Beatrix Midant-Reynes describes human sacrifice as having occurred at Abydos in the early dynastic period ({{circa}} {{BCE|3150–2850}}),<ref>''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt'', Ian Shaw, p. 54, Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-280293-3}}</ref> while [[Jan Assmann]] asserts there is no clear evidence of human sacrifice ever happening in ancient Egypt.<ref>''Of God and Gods'', Jan Assmann, p. 32, University of Wisconsin Press, 2008, {{ISBN|0-299-22554-2}}</ref>