First Intimate Kissing Started a Thousand Years Earlier, Claims New Study! Experts Now Link It to Herpes Spread

Previously, the first recorded intimate kissing was believed to be 3,500 years ago.

However, a new study revealed that the earliest sexual kissing actually began a thousand years earlier.

Before the new study was published, it was believed that sexual kissing originated in South Asia.

Now, researchers at Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen stated that the earliest romantic kissing could have appeared first in Mesopotamia.

They shared this detail after analyzing the earliest texts from Mesopotamia.

First Intimate Kissing Started a Thousand Years Earlier

According to The Straits Times' latest report, romantic-sexual kissing was described in ancient texts from 1800 BCE.

Dr. Sophie Lund Rasmussen and Dr. Troels Pank Arboll explained that one of the texts described how a sexual kiss almost led a married woman astray.

Another text focused on an unmarried woman who was swearing just to avoid sexual kissing and romantic relations with another man.

Based on these details, involved researchers said that romantic-sexual kissing were used to evaluate a potential mate's suitability, facilitating sexual arousal, as well as mediating feelings of attachment.

Role of Ancient Kissing in Spreading Disease

Although sexual-romantic kissing was quite useful during ancient times, researchers also explained that this intimate action could have impacted the spread of diseases.

In the ancient texts they analyzed, the so-called "bus'shanu' disease was included. Experts claimed that this could be reflecting the HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus) and other similar diseases.

News Medical reported that numerous pieces of evidence already showed that kissing was a common practice in ancient times.

This means that kissing could have influenced the spread of orally transmitted microbes, such as herpes.

"Evidence indicates that kissing was a common practice in ancient times, potentially representing a constant influence on the spread of orally transmitted microbes, such as HSV-1," explained Rasmussen and Arboll.

The two researchers reviewed ancient DNA, ancient medical records, as well as cultural work of arts to prove that orally-transmitted diseases were more widespread thousands of years ago.

If you want to learn more about the latest study about the earliest sexual kissing, you can check it in the Science Advances journal.

In other stories, strange skeletons with tied hands were discovered by archeologists in Spain.

Recently, a 7,000-year-old sunken road, which is located off the coast of Croatia, was also identified.

For more news updates about exciting ancient studies, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.