News Anthropology

Humans have linked emotions to the same body parts for 3,000 years

Ancient Mesopotamians also felt love in the heart and fear in the gut, clay tablets reveal

Slices of the same man's face are shown roughly 12 times, stretched out like a panoramic shot, each displaying a portion of a different facial expression

A new study suggests that the anatomical connections we make to emotions have ancient roots.

Eric O'Connell/The Image Bank/Getty Images Plus

By Jason Bittel

Have you ever felt like there was a pit in your stomach? What about a flutter in your heart?

It turns out that the anatomical connections we make with certain emotions and feelings — what researchers call embodied emotions — may be more universal than you’d think.