Where and When did massage come from?

When the subject of massage is brought up, few people really understand the impact that it has had on society and the world in general.  For instance, western civilization, more specifically the United States, has for the longest time, in the name of pharmaceuticals and modern medicine, pushed massage therapy to the dark corners of mysticism and skepticism.  Fortunately, the pendulum has swung back to shed a positive light on massage therapy and its many benefits for people.  The medical community is starting to come around to see massage as not only a complimentary service for many hospitals, but, as a stand alone treatment as well.  The drug companies, it seems, will doubtfully back something that competes with their many medications.  But, I digress, back to the history of massage!  So, where did it all start?  To be honest, no one really knows the exact start date of massage, that is because it has been around longer than anything from modern society, longer than the Statue of Liberty, London Bridge, the Egyptian Pyramids or Stonehenge!  Massage therapy has been around since the beginning of mankind, many thousands of years ago.  Now, as always, don’t take my word for it, see what the experts have to say!

A Brief History of Massage 
By Robert Noah Calvert

Note: The late Robert Noah Calvert authored The History of Massage: An Illustrated Survey from Around the World (Healing Arts Press, 2002). He founded Massage Magazine in 1985 and served as its president until 2005, also founding the World of Massage Museum in 2000. With more than 25 years of experience as a massage therapist, publisher, researcher and educator, his work appeared in numerous publications, including Body, Mind & Spirit Magazine, Massage & Bodywork and the Journal of Higher Education. At the time of his death in April 2006, he was working on three massage-related books.

These observations on massage were submitted to ABMP by the author just a few days before his death.

Massage…is a very ancient form of treatment, so ancient that one may consider its history to be as old as that of mankind and its beginnings prehistoric.
-Dr. Emil A.G. Kleen, Massage and Medical Gymnastics, 1921.