The earliest recorded human kiss dates back 4,500 years in the ancient Near East, a millennium earlier than previously thought by science.

According to scholars, there is evidence that kissing as a practice existed in some of the earliest societies in Mesopotamia, as evidenced by written records in ancient texts from 2500 BC.

IN article published in the scientific journal Scienceresearchers provide evidence that kissing may have contributed to the spread of oral diseases such as the common cold.

Although studies show that kissing between friends or acquaintances was common among people of that time and geography, kissing as a sign of sexual attraction was not a common practice. For researchers who have studied ancient texts and more recent publications, kissing between lovers occurs—and indeed did occur millennia ago—in societies with different social classes.

First kiss

The first mention of a kiss with an erotic/sexual starting point is found in Indian manuscript Bronze Age, which dates back to around 1500 BC. Approximately five hundred years later, similar behavior is described in the Indian epic”Mahabharata‘, and the researchers initially thought that the kiss spread throughout the world from this geographical and temporal point of origin.

Texts from ancient Mesopotamia indicate that kissing was a behavior that occurred from around 2500 BC. (i.e. a millennium earlier than previously thought) between married couples, although it was also a sign of desire or love for an unmarried person.

“In ancient Mesopotamia, as the early human civilizations that lived between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the area where Iraq and Syria are today, are called, people wrote in cuneiform on clay tablets,” the doctor explains. Troels Punk Arbol, specialist in the history of medicine in Mesopotamia, University of Copenhagen.

“Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day and contain clear examples of how in ancient times, kissing was considered part of romantic intimacy.but also a sign of friendship and relationships between families,” he adds.

“That’s why, kissing should not be regarded as a custom that originated exclusively in one region and from there spread throughout the worldinstead, it seems to have been applied to many ancient cultures over many millennia,” he says.

Previous research has shown that bonobo primates kiss each other for amorous or sexual purposes, while chimpanzees bond with platonic kisses to manage their social relationships. These customs of the closest relatives of man testify, according to scientists, to the existence of kisses since ancient times and their evolution among people.

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

Source: Guardian/Wall Street Journal.