Earliest recorded kiss may date back 1,000 years earlier than estimated

Mesopotamians kissed — and scientists are finally telling.

New research suggests humans kissed each other on the lips 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Researchers at Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark recently analyzed written sources from early Mesopotamian societies, which led them to propose humanity’s earliest recorded kiss took place 4,500 years ago.

“In ancient Mesopotamia, which is the name for the early human cultures that existed between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in present-day Iraq and Syria, people wrote in cuneiform script on clay tablets,” Dr. Troels Pank Arbøll, of the University of Copenhagen, explained to SWNS.

“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.”

The findings were published in the journal Science.

Experts previously believed the first human lip-to-lip action happened 3,500 years ago in a specific part of South Asia, suspecting the practice eventually reached other regions — a notion the research team disputes.

“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 noted.

“In fact, research into bonobos and chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, has shown that both species engage in kissing, which may suggest that the practice of kissing is a fundamental behavior in humans, explaining why it can be found across cultures,” added Dr. Sophie Lund Rasmussen, of the University of Oxford.

Though kissing is an important advancement for social and sexual human behavior, the scientists say the custom may have unintentionally played a role in the transmission of microorganisms, potentially causing viruses to spread among humans.

But don’t blame kissing for accelerating the spread of the herpes simplex virus, the researchers warn.

“There is a substantial corpus of medical texts from Mesopotamia, some of which mention a disease with symptoms reminiscent of the herpes simplex virus,” Arbøll said.

He added that ancient medical texts were influenced by cultural and religious concepts, so it’s important to note they can’t be taken at face value.

“It is nevertheless interesting to note some similarities between the disease known as buʾshanu in ancient medical texts from Mesopotamia and the symptoms caused by herpes simplex infections,” Arbøll continued.

“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.”

Rasmussen added: “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 must likely have been more or less constant.”

More recently, a social media influencer announced she cut off part of her tongue to “improve” her kissing skills — perhaps raising questions for future researchers.