Paleolithic Massage?

Swedish massage. Image: istockphoto.comI am currently on a weekend break in the mountains but no longer snowboarding since my cycling injury. I had a massage yesterday, probably the fourth in my life. The experience led me to consider the origin of this practice. While the written record of massage dates to around 3000 BC, what about massage itself? Could its origin much older and date back to the late Paleolithic?

My experience began at the “sanctuary”, a large dimly lit waiting area with a fireplace lending a cave-like atmosphere. The components of the massage (Swedish in this case) were music (specifically flute), oils, and human touch - each element available to humankind for millennia. In view of the millions of years of hominid grooming, it is reasonable to propose that this behavior became more structured with Homo sapiens, possibly at the time of Cro-Magnon, and led to massage or at least a massage-like practice. The flute is at least 40 thousand years old. Oil lamps were carried into the deep recesses of the Lascaux and Altamira caves by Cro-Magnon 13,000-18,000 years ago. Again, all the elements were there.

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