Kissing an ancient expression
Discover the ancient origins of kissing, a gesture of love and intimacy that dates back over 4,500 years. Uncover the historical evidence from Mesopotamia and explore how this act has evolved across cultures, from ancient clay tablets to modern-day expressions of affection.
“The meeting of lips is the most perfect, the most divine sensation given to human beings, the supreme limit of happiness,” penned the 19th-century French author Guy de Maupassant in his short story, The Kiss. Maupassant wasn’t alone in his poetic musings. Kissing has long been a staple of human expression, lauded in songs, poems, stories, and immortalised in art and film.
While no one is quite sure when humans first discovered that a simple touch of the lips could be a source of romantic and erotic pleasure, recent findings suggest that the history of kissing stretches back further than previously thought. A study published in Science in May 2023 revealed that people were engaging in kissing at least 4,500 years ago, pushing the timeline back by a millennium.
“Kissing has been practiced much longer than perhaps a lot of us realised, or at least had thought about,” noted Dr. Troels Pank Arbøll, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of Assyriology at the University of Copenhagen. His research, based on thousands of ancient clay tablets from Mesopotamia, provides a rare glimpse into the intimate lives of people in the ancient world.
Arbøll and his colleagues discovered that these cuneiform tablets, dating from around 2500 BC, contain references to kissing, offering insights into romantic intimacy that predate other known records. It’s a fascinating peek into the past, where love wasn’t always confined to the abstract or the formal; even then, people seemed to know the joy of a well-placed smooch.
The clay tablets’ accounts of romantic kisses go beyond mere expressions of affection. They suggest that kissing was a common practice among married couples and lovers. Yet, it wasn’t without its social norms and taboos. Kissing a priestess, for instance, was believed to rob the kisser of the power of speech, a warning that underscores the interplay of love, power, and the sacred in ancient societies.
However, the origins of kissing are not limited to Mesopotamia. Previously, scholars believed that the first recorded instance of kissing could be traced to ancient India. The Vedas, dating back to around 1500 BC, and the later Kama Sutra describe kisses in ways that suggest the practice was already well established. These texts were once thought to mark the beginning of romantic kissing. But it seems that, like many good things, kissing has multiple points of origin. Arbøll’s findings suggest that kissing might have been a well-known, if not universally practiced, form of intimacy in many ancient cultures.
It appears that kissing has evolved not only as a form of romantic connection but also as a way for humans to evaluate potential mates. This behaviour is not unique to humans; our closest primate relatives, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, also engage in kissing, often as part of social bonding or sexual play. For these animals, a kiss might communicate more than affection—it might convey health and genetic compatibility, signalling a good match.
Yet, not all kisses are created equal. In some cultures, kissing is as natural as breathing, a common gesture of affection, or the prelude to more intimate encounters. In others, it’s an oddity, if not outright frowned upon. A 2015 study found that only 46% of cultures surveyed worldwide practised kissing as a romantic or sexual gesture. The research noted that such kissing was more prevalent in societies with distinct social hierarchies. In simpler, foraging societies, the practice was less common, suggesting that kissing might be more a product of cultural evolution than biological necessity.
While Western culture today often takes kissing for granted, the reality is that it has not always been a ubiquitous part of human behaviour. The historical record reminds us that while kissing may be common now, it hasn’t always been so, nor is it necessarily the universal language of love.
Indeed, the ancient evidence opens intriguing avenues for future research. If kissing was widespread in the ancient world, it may have been more universally practiced than in modern times, where cultural preferences and social norms vary widely. As Arbøll pointed out, the study’s findings prompt us to rethink our understanding of human intimacy, raising questions about how these behaviours have evolved and what they tell us about the societies that embraced them.
So, whether a peck on the cheek or a full-blown snog, the kiss has a history as rich and varied as human society itself. From ancient Mesopotamian tablets to modern city streets, this simple yet profound gesture continues to speak the language of love. And who knows? Perhaps the next time you pucker up, you’ll feel a little connection to those ancient lovers, whose lips first met thousands of years ago.
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