Farting in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
The oldest written jokes in human history are about flatulence. This is no exaggeration: archaeologists and ancient historians have found fart jokes on Sumerian clay tablets dating to 1900 BC — and ancient Egyptian papyri contain medical treatises on intestinal gas that are surprisingly modern in their biological precision. In antiquity, flatulence was neither a taboo subject nor mere comedy — it was medicine, humor, and cosmological symbol all at once.
The World's Oldest Joke: Sumer, 1900 BC
The oldest known written joke in human history is a Sumerian fart joke. The clay tablet, discovered in the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur (in modern-day Iraq) and dated to approximately 1900 BC, contains a version of the joke: 'A woman who had never left her husband's house farted like an ox.' This is not only the oldest documented joke — it is also a fart joke. The find is held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. The context of the joke is unclear, but ancient Near Eastern scholars interpret it as a comment on domestic isolation or as a typical surprise joke: the contrast between delicate feminine modesty and a raw animal sound.
Ancient Egyptian Medicine: Intestinal Gas as Disease and Remedy
The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BC), one of the most important medical documents of antiquity, contains several passages on intestinal gas. Egyptian physicians (Sechemcheri) distinguished between different types of abdominal complaints with gastrointestinal involvement and recommended different treatments: enemas with beer yeast decoctions (actually effective, as beer yeast contains probiotics), herbal teas of fennel and anise (empirically plausible), and ritual incantation formulas (less effective). Particularly interesting: the Smith Papyrus contains a passage linking excessive flatulence to heart complaints — a proto-medical observation reminiscent of the phenomenon of gastrointestinal cardiac reflexes.
Mesopotamia: Farting as a Divine Sign
In Babylonian and Assyrian tradition, bodily functions — including farting — had mantic significance: they could be interpreted as omens. Omen collections (so-called omen series such as 'Šumma ālu', meaning 'if a city') actually contain passages about unexpected farting as a bad or good omen. 'If a man farts loudly and no one hears it, he will have pain' — such entries appear in divination texts. The king's farting carried special significance: court officials responsible for interpreting royal bodily reactions (baru priests) theoretically also had to interpret loud gas releases by the king. This shows how deeply bodily functions were embedded in the Babylonian worldview.
Greece and Rome: Philosophers on Farting
Ancient Greek and Roman civilization also addressed flatulence medically and literarily. Hippocrates (460–370 BC) devoted several sections of his writings to intestinal gas and regarded regular gas release as a sign of healthy digestion: 'It is necessary to pass what wants to be passed.' Aristotle analyzed the composition of intestinal gas in his natural science writings and described it as 'the residual moisture of food digestion'. Aristophanes, the comedy playwright, regularly used fart jokes in his plays — in 'The Clouds' (423 BC), Socrates seriously discusses whether mosquitoes sing through their rear ends. The philosophical lack of distance from bodily functions was characteristic of ancient scholarship.
Did you know?
- The oldest known joke in human history is a Sumerian fart joke from approximately 1900 BC.
- The ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus contains medical treatment recommendations for intestinal gas — including effective beer yeast enemas.
- Babylonian omen texts interpreted loud farting as a bad omen.
- Hippocrates regarded regular farting as a sign of healthy digestion.
Fun Fact
The second oldest clay tablet featuring a fart joke (also Sumerian, c. 1900 BC) contains a variant that ancient Near Eastern scholars classify as 'situational humor': a beer brewer who claims his beer smells 'better than dates' — to which someone replies it smells 'like a fart'. The clay tablet is on display at the British Museum in London. Visitors who read the explanatory text are, according to museum staff, regularly surprised to discover that the object before them is a 4,000-year-old fart joke.
Sources
- Robson, E. (2008). Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History. Princeton University Press.
- Nunn, J.F. (1996). Ancient Egyptian Medicine. British Museum Press.
- Starr, I. (1990). Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4, Helsinki.