Named the time of the oldest known in the history of kisses

The first records of human kissing in history may date back 1,000 years earlier than thought. The findings suggest that ancient Mesopotamian kissing may have been more culturally universal than previously thought.

According to researchers, the earliest human evidence of kissing dates back to about 4,500 years ago in the ancient Near East, which is 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Scholars have highlighted evidence suggesting that kissing was practiced in some of Mesopotamia’s earliest societies and documented in ancient texts dating back to 2500 BC, which had previously been largely overlooked, The Guardian reports.

In a paper published in the journal Science, the researchers also cited evidence that kissing may have contributed to the spread of orally transmitted diseases such as herpes.

Although research has shown that friendly or familial kissing has been a common behavior between people at all times and geographically, romantic-sexual kissing has not been considered culturally universal.

The researchers said the findings suggest that kissing was considered a common part of romantic intimacy in ancient times in many cultures and did not originate in a specific region, as earlier studies suggested. The previous hypothesis suggested that the earliest evidence of kissing was obtained in what is now India in 1500 BC.

Ancient Mesopotamian texts suggest that kissing was something married couples did, although kissing was also seen as part of an unmarried person’s desires when in love.

Dr. Troels Punk Arbell, an expert on the history of medicine in Mesopotamia at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, says: “In ancient Mesopotamia, which is the name of the early human cultures that existed between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in what is now Iraq and Syria, people wrote in cuneiform on clay tablets . Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day, and they contain clear examples of how kissing in ancient times was considered part of romantic intimacy, just as kissing could be part of friendship and family relationships. Therefore, kissing should not be seen as a custom that originated exclusively in any one region and spread from there, but rather, it seems to have been practiced in many ancient cultures over several millennia.

Studies have shown that bonobo monkeys kiss for a romantic/sexual purpose, while chimpanzees engage in platonic kissing to build social relationships. Being the closest living relatives of humans, the scientists said these practices hint at an ancient presence and behavioral evolution in humans.

The researchers also said that kissing may have unintentionally played a role in the transmission of pathogens such as herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), which causes herpes and diphtheria, a highly contagious bacterial infection.

It is believed that bushanu, described in ancient medical texts, may be an HSV-1 infection. It was found in and around the mouth, which is one of the main signs of the herpes virus.

Dr. Arbell said: “There is a significant corpus of medical texts from Mesopotamia, some of which mention a disease with symptoms resembling herpes simplex virus 1.”

However, researchers have stated that these texts cannot be taken at face value as they were influenced by various cultural and religious concepts of the time.