Mankind’s first kiss record was earlier than expected | Article

“My upper lip is moist and my lower lip is trembling!” I hug him and kiss him. —Tablets from Sippar, Mesopotamia, 1900-1595 BC. Translated by Nathan Wasserman, Akkadian Romance Literature of the 3rd and 2nd Millennium BC.

Carved into clay tablets some 4,000 years ago, these breathtaking cuneiform lines are among the first depictions of a romantic kiss. However, hints from archeology and DNA suggest that kissing began long before humans were able to write about it. Lustful acts may be as old as our species. Unfortunately, as kissing became more popular, it also had the side effect of spreading disease. Scientists studying the evolution of persistent pathogens are now delving into the history of kissing and trying to unravel the long-standing role of smoothing in kiss transmission.

Cuneiform expert and medical historian Troels Pank Arbol of the University of Copenhagen said: Co-authored Perspective of chemistry This Thursday explores the ancient history of kissing and its role in disease transmission. Arbol and Sophie Lund Rasmussen scrutinized Mesopotamian cuneiform texts, focusing on overlooked mentions of kissing and medical records describing illnesses. The study puts a date on the oldest written evidence of the kiss, a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age manuscript in India. The authors explain that Mesopotamian stone tablets are 1,000 years old, but citing evidence from ancient art and DNA, Arbol shouldn’t assume that the 4,500-year-old document is the birthplace of the kiss. emphasize.

That’s because kisses are fleeting and don’t leave much for scientists to figure out. “The origins of sexual and romantic kissing must have been far more prehistoric than we can detect with current methods,” Arbor says.

While kissers can exhibit a personal style, researchers distinguish between two main types of kissing. The first is the kind of pecking you would expect from family and friends, which seems to be fairly common in societies around the world. However, the second type, the long, open kiss favored by lovers, is the focus of this study.

Why do people hold their lips together and exchange spit? Psychological and physiological studies of kissing attraction are ongoing. Some have suggested that kissing helps humans discern potential mates. For example, you may encounter bad breath when going out for a smooch, which usually makes you feel uncomfortable. That breath can also be a warning signal to parts of your brain that indicate weakness, illness, or other weakness. And the saliva that passes from mouth to mouth contains hormones and other compounds that can give your brain clues as to whether a kissing partner is really a good match.

Kissing strengthens the bond between the pair, and happier couples kiss more often. Some research resultsHowever, experts cannot say exactly how it works. One reason might be that he just feels good. During kissing, our sensitive lips and tongue stimulate areas of the brain involved in increasing pleasure and reducing stress.

Non-human primates have also been observed smoothing. Bonobos kiss mouth-to-mouth as part of their sexual behavior. Chimpanzees practice platonic kissing, which is part of social interaction within a group.Kissing may have played a similar role in the early days. clever personDoes that mean our kissing tendencies may be as old as our species itself? Scientists don’t know.

Clear evidence exists that humans had sexual relations with Neanderthals, and the evidence is visible in DNA. But did they kiss? Scientists studying Neanderthal dental plaque have uncovered the genetic signature of a 48,000-year-old microbe still present in the human mouth today, but this microbe was associated with Neanderthals at the time. It was different. How did you get there? This he two species may have shared a meal, so a kiss is an obvious possibility, but not the only one.

Hints also exist from art and archeology. Embrace 11,000 years of history Sculpture of Ain SakriThis, the oldest work of human love, may also be trapped in a passionate kiss. Due to the lack of facial features, this is open to interpretation.

Cuneiform appeared around 3200 BC and seems to have been confined to mediocre administrative documents for several hundred years. After some time, perhaps inevitably, the subject of amorous relationships appeared in Mesopotamian records, with the first recorded mention of kissing some 4,500 years ago.

“The first examples appear to be mythological texts,” says Arbor. “Obviously, God’s World is also a kind of reflection of what’s going on among people, but it seems to play a role in relation to sexual encounters there. It’s interesting what you had in mind.”

Examples of kissing in other Mesopotamian texts suggest that kissing was a common part of romantic relationships between married couples, and a dangerous aspect of lust for some unmarried people.

One of the legal documents of the Mesopotamian city of Larsa, c.1900-1595 BC, translated by Marten Stol women of the ancient near easta woman named Shatt Marduk vows to cut off contact with her apparently illicit lover: ‘He won’t come back’ [to me]And he won’t encourage me to do ‘man and woman things’, and he won’t kiss my lips, and I won’t allow him to do ‘man and woman things’. If he ever invites me to hold him in his arms, he will definitely report it to the elders and the mayor. ”

And Mesopotamia wasn’t the only hotspot for ancient quarrels. Arbol points out that examples from India and Egypt show that sexual kissing was practiced over a wide geographic area in ancient times.

“This article furthers our historical understanding of human intimate behaviors such as kissing, and provides interesting insight into the personal lives of ancient Mesopotamians from the very earliest written records,” says Evolutionary Studies. says Charlotte Holdcroft, a molecular biologist at the University of Cambridge. It was the cause of the disease and was not involved in new research.

Despite the long history of kissing, it is far from ubiquitous today. 2015 A study of 168 cultures It turns out that only about half of those groups are popular for romantic kisses around the world. And where kissing is common, some pay a price for the experience.

Diseases such as herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), Epstein-Barr virus, human parvovirus, and the common cold can be spread by saliva, so kissing can spread them across a population. According to one study, Tens of millions or even billions of bacteria Can be exchanged during deep kiss.

According to medical records, Mesopotamians did not believe kissing played a role in the spread of infectious diseases, Arbol reported in the paper. But it could have actually happened. It is difficult to diagnose diseases by translating ancient writings in cuneiform. It is still known as the mouth disease of Mesopotamia. bthey know The authors point out that it could have been herpes. At least some figures in the ancient world doubted that the practice could affect their health. In Rome, Emperor Tiberius tried to ban kissing at state events, probably because it was thought to spread herpes. (His efforts were unsuccessful.)

Last year, Holdcroft and colleagues used ancient DNA to sequence the herpesvirus genome and chart its evolution. they suggested The current dominant strain, HSV-1, arose 5,000 years ago during the migration from Bronze Age Eurasia to Europe, and the rapid spread of deep kissing, a new cultural practice that spread among those mixed populations. It is said that it was boosted by the rise of

of World Health Organization estimates About 3.7 billion people, two-thirds of the world’s population under the age of 50, are infected with HSV-1.

Arbol and Rasmussen write that the genomes of many pathogens transmitted by saliva have also been obtained from ancient human remains, suggesting that diseases transmitted by kissing have existed since prehistoric times. However, evidence pointing to the longstanding popularity of kissing makes the theory that the HSV-1 strain arose from a sudden epidemic of kissing that was passed from culture to culture less likely.

“Kissing may have played a role in the transmission of the disease, but rather it seems to have been a constant means of transmission,” he explains. “Our proposal is that the virus must have been so widespread in the ancient world that it would not have rapidly accelerated disease in certain populations.” Given the known mix of cultures between regions of the ancient world, evidenced by exchanges, he feels that kissing would have been well known, if not universally accepted. .

“People who didn’t embrace kissing most likely found it uncomfortable in some way,” says Arbor. ”