Nevertheless, he added, “there is clear evidence that kissing was considered a normal part of romantic intimacy in ancient times”.
The studied texts implied that “kissing was something that married couples did” but also that “kissing was considered as part of an unmarried person’s sexual desire when in love”, he wrote.
The researchers made a distinction between the “friendly-parent-child kiss” and the “romantic-sexual kiss”.
While the former appears to be ubiquitous across time and geography, the latter is “not universal culturally”.
