How the Mesopotamians Wrote About Their Feelings Gives Us Insight into Their Ancient World

Poets and writers have woven emotional tales throughout history. Often, we writers describe emotions through body parts. Our hearts ache when we experience unrequited love. We get butterflies in our stomach when our crush is nearby. We “see” red when we’re angry.

While we often associate these emotions with specific body parts, some of our ancient ancestors described these feelings in a slightly different way. A 2024 study in iScience explores how ancient Mesopotamians may have expressed their emotions, describing feelings such as “liver being full” or anger in their feet.

Read More: These 5 Ancient Civilizations Treasured Their Pets

Ancient Mesopotamia and Anatomy

For this study, a multidisciplinary research team from the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, the University of Turku, and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz reviewed clay cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian, a language used from 934 to 612 B.C.E.

The team analyzed over one million Akkadian words and determined that the ancient Mesopotamians had well-rounded knowledge of their internal anatomy. They were aware of their lungs, liver, and hearts.

“Even in ancient Mesopotamia, there was a rough understanding of anatomy,” said Professor Saana Svärd of the University of Helsinki, an assyriologist and lead researcher of the study, in a press release. “For example, the importance of the heart, liver, and lungs.”

According to the findings, ancient Mesopotamians often described positive emotions as being felt in the liver and used words such as “open,” “shining,” and “being full” to describe those feelings. While this may seem similar to how we describe emotions today, there are notable differences.

For example, modern humans tend to feel anger in their upper body, whereas ancient Mesopotamians felt anger in their feet. And even though love may be felt in the “heart” by both groups of people, ancient Mesopotamians also felt love in the liver and knees, according to the press release.

How to Map Ancient Emotions

Approximately 10 years before the release of this project, Finnish researchers published a study that mapped emotions across the human body. The mapping study explores how emotions such as anxiety may be experienced as a tightness in the chest, and how love can be perceived as a warm sensation throughout the body.

According to the mapping study, our bodies react physically and mentally to these emotions, preparing us to respond with actions such as running, fighting, or engaging in pleasurable interactions. The mapping study participants were presented with an emotion and then asked to color in a body image that evoked that emotion.

Researchers from the ancient emotions study used the results to create bodily maps for the ancient Mesopotamians.

“If you compare the ancient Mesopotamian bodily map of happiness with modern bodily maps, it is largely similar, with the exception of a notable glow in the liver,” said cognitive neuroscientist Juha Lahnakoski, a visiting researcher at Aalto University, in a press release.

Emotional Expressions

While it’s interesting to compare the emotions of ancient Mesopotamians and modern humans, the researchers emphasize that it’s essential to consider that modern emotional expressions, such as those found in writings and song lyrics, stem from firsthand experiences. In contrast, ancient Mesopotamian maps were based on written records on clay.

Today, many more people have access to reading and writing tools and know how to use them. However, in ancient Mesopotamia, not everyone had access to reading and writing, so their thoughts, experiences, and emotions were left to the mercy of scribes.

“It remains to be seen whether we can say something in the future about what kind of emotional experiences are typical for humans in general and whether, for example, fear has always been felt in the same parts of the body. Also, we have to keep in mind that texts are texts and emotions are lived and experienced,” said Svärd in a press release.

A study like this is a first of its kind. Still, researchers believe that they can apply the method of pairing emotions and body parts in other ancient languages to determine if other ancient people experienced emotions differently.

“It could be a useful way to explore intercultural differences in the way we experience emotions,” said Svärd in a press release.

This article is a republished version of this previously published article.

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