Anatomy of emotions: for the ancient Assyrians happiness was “in the liver” and anger “in the legs”

The ancients Assyriansmore than two millennia ago, associated different emotions with similar body parts than we do today, albeit with some interesting differences. It is the result of a study carried out by researchers from several German and Finnish neuroscience institutes and published in iSciencewhich produced a complete body mapping of emotions and their corporeal bases in the Akkadian language starting from a corpus of cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian (an extinct Semitic language, related to Arabic and Hebrew) during the Neo-Assyrian period (911-626 BC) containing more than a million words. There are some differences compared to the contemporary perception of emotions, for example: for the Assyrians happiness was more associated with liver compared to today and anger was particularly associated with legs.

Recent studies have shown that bodily sensations associated with emotions are remarkably similar across cultures, suggesting a shared biological basis. This study is therefore important because it allows us to evaluate whether these similarities also persist in the ancient culturesjust like that of the Assyrians.

The study selected the terms relevant to the language of emotions and divided the latter into different categories: sadness, discomfort, suffering, anger, joy, Schadenfreude (borrowed from the German which indicates the gratification one feels for the misfortune of others), pleasure, fear, disgust, love, desire, hatred, sympathy, envy, pride, shame, sexual excitement.

The emotions described in Akkadian texts (both administrative and literary in nature), through metaphorshave been associated with certain bodily reactions, exactly as we do in Italian, with ways of saying such as “gnaw one’s liver”, “give palpitations” etc. Once the emotions and affected body parts mentioned in the literary corpus had been subdivided, the German and Finnish researchers developed 3D models of the human body to depict graphically the action that each emotion had on the body according to the perception of the ancient Assyrians. Emotions have been grouped into four cluster who left out those of more uncertain location, such as sexual excitement, shame, disgust and envy:

1. Sympathy and Schadenfreude – Social emotions related to recognition of other people’s emotionsboth in a positive sense (sympathy) and a negative one (pleasure derived from the misfortune of others). These emotions are associated with the area of torso (above all chest), throat and lower part of the face.
2. Positive Emotions: Happiness and Pleasure – Emotions linked to a state of well beingsuch as happiness and pleasure. Both emotions show a strong and consistent association with the liver.
3. Pride, Desire and Love – Positive emotions that are complex and often linked to relationship with others. These emotions share the association with the liver and the Heart. Desire and love, on the other hand, are associated with legs.
4. Negative Emotions: Sadness, Fear and Anger – Emotions often associated with unease or conflictsuch as sadness, anguish, fear, anger and contempt. The first two are associated with hands And headthe second two to upper part of the legswhile the last one at liver.

The bodily maps of emotions of Assyrian texts in Akkadian reflect similarities with modern research. In particular, the association with the internal organs: the liver is the seat of emotions such as anger and happiness, in line with modern interpretations. Furthermore, the Akkadian representation of love involves the heart, liver, genitals and, interestingly, knees, suggesting interesting cultural variability. It should be specified that Akkadian emotions they seem to be more contextual compared to modern categories, highlighting a different understanding of the body and emotions.

The results, in line with the research ofAssyriology (the historical discipline that deals with the study of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations) on the embodiment of emotions, also reveal new opportunities for in-depth analysis. In the intentions of the researchers, this method is also applicable to different eras and languagesallowing comparisons between cultures on how embodied emotions have been expressed and discussed, perfecting a multidisciplinary approach that also includes psychology and literature.