A New Study Says That Humans Began Locking Lips Much Earlier Than We Previously Thought, And The Earliest Recorded Kiss Actually Occurred 4,500 Years Ago
A new study published in Science suggests that humans began locking lips much earlier than we previously thought. Approximately 1,000 years earlier, to be exact.
The research was conducted by scientists from Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen in Demark, who analyzed the writings of early Mesopotamian societies. And findings within these texts led the team to suggest that the earliest recorded kiss actually occurred 4,500 years ago.
Ancient Mesopotamia refers to the cultures that lived between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now present-day Syria and Iraq. And Mesopotamians wrote on clay tablets using cuneiform script.
“Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day, and they contain clear examples that kissing was considered a part of romantic intimacy in ancient times, just as kissing could be part of friendships and family members’ relations,” explained Dr. Troels Pank Arbøll from the University of Copenhagen.
Prior to this discovery, experts believed that the first human kiss occurred in South Asia approximately 3,500 years ago before the practice eventually made its way to other areas.
However, the research team suggests this previous belief was inaccurate.
“Kissing should not be regarded as a custom that originated exclusively in any single region and spread from there, but rather appears to have been practiced in multiple ancient cultures over several millennia,” Arbøll said.
Even research into chimpanzees and bonobos– the closest living relatives to the human race– has revealed that both species participate in kissing. So, the team believes this finding suggests that kissing could be a fundamental human behavior.
“Explaining why it can be found across cultures,” noted Dr. Sophie Lund Rasmussen from the University of Oxford.
ViDi Studio – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
And in addition to playing an important role in the advancement of human social behavior, the researchers also suggest that kissing may have unintentionally led to the transmission of microorganisms. In other words, locking lips could have potentially caused viruses to spread from human to human.
“If the practice of kissing was widespread and well-established in a range of ancient societies, the effects of kissing in terms of pathogen transmission most likely have been more or less constant,” Rasmussen said.
Still, while various medical texts from Mesopotamia reference a disease that had similar symptoms to the herpes simplex virus, the researchers warned against blaming kissing for accelerating the spread.
According to Arbøll, cultural and religious concepts did influence these ancient medical texts– meaning they cannot always be taken at face value.
“Nevertheless, it is interesting to note some similarities between the disease– known as ‘bu’shanu’ in ancient medical texts from Mesopotamia– and the symptoms caused by herpes simplex infections,” Arbøll concluded.
“The bu’shanu disease was located primarily in or around the mouth and throat, and symptoms included vesicles in or around the mouth, which is one of the dominant signs of herpes infection.”
To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.
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