Lesbianism is the sexual and romantic desire between women. There are historically fewer mentions of lesbianism than male homosexuality, due to many historical writings and records focusing primarily on men.
Ancient period
Ancient Mesopotamia
Women's sexuality in ancient Mesopotamia is not well documented. Stephanie Lynn Budin, writing on love magic, argues that "there remains no evidence for lesbianism in this regard (or any other from Mesopotamia)." However, there are at least two pieces of textual evidence for Mesopotamian lesbianism. One is a divinatory text which mentions female same-sex activity, while another, more explicit text remains unpublished.
There are also mentions in the Code of Hammurabi () of a sal-zikrum. This term may translate to "woman-man" and refer to a gender-nonconforming individual, "perhaps a female functionary, attached to a temple." The word is regularly treated as grammatically feminine, but a sal-zikrum was allowed to marry women, and she inherited the same amount as her brothers. It is possible that a female transgressor of gender boundaries was regarded as a "woman-man" because of her social behavior (i.e., relationships with other women). The term sal-nu-bar, according to a disputed belief, referred to women who were allowed to marry but not to have children, and so "brought another woman with them to bear children"
In addition, an Old Assyrian text writes of two women, Ewanika and Adi-matum, who had a betrothal contract for their "daughter." It is possible that the father passed away, leaving the two women as widows.
Ancient Egypt
Homosexuality in ancient Egypt between women is less often recorded, or alluded to, in documents and other artifacts as compared to homosexuality among men, but it does appear in such documents. The Dream Book of the Carlsberg papyrus XIII claims that "If a woman dreams that a woman has intercourse with her, she will come to a bad end". Depictions of women during the New Kingdom suggest they enjoyed, in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere, the company of other women who were scantily clad or naked. Some cosmetics-related items, which may have been owned and used by women, feature nude and suggestive depictions of women.
There are several pieces of evidence for female homosexuality in Roman Egypt. There are examples of women casting love spells to make other women fall in love with them dating from the second to fourth centuries CE. These spells are unusual because they were likely commissioned by women from lower social classes rather than the elite, and because they contain the names of ancient women with homoerotic desires. For example, Herais cast a love spell on Sarapias, and the following quotation is from Sophia's love spell for Gorgonia:
The homosexual nature of some spells has been erased. In a love spell for Nike, the name of the commissioner Pantous (or Paitous) could be male or female, but two feminine pronouns reveal that it refers to a woman. Franz Boll assumed that both pronouns were scribal errors, and made the spell heterosexual by substituting masculine equivalents in his 1910 edition of the text. The first edition to restore the homosexual reading was published in 1989, although its authors also argued for Boll's scribal error theory. Masculine pronouns remain in some translations published after 1989.
In the fifth century CE, women at the White Monastery in Upper Egypt sometimes pursued same-sex relationships. A letter from Shenoute chastises two women, , and , , for running after each other "in friendship and physical desire". This phrase referred to homosexual advances, which were not uncommon. It is unknown if the corporal punishment Shenoute prescribed for the women was administered.
Early imperial China
In early Chinese history sexual activity between women was accepted, and sometimes actively encouraged. Female same-sex relationships were described with a special term (), literally 'paired eating', possibly referring to cunnilingus. In the second or third century AD Ying Shao defined it as "when palace women attach themselves as husband and wife". Such relationships sometimes formed between government slaves or members of the emperor's harem. For example, under Emperor Cheng's rule (33 – 7BC) the slave Dào Fáng () had a homosexual relationship with Cáo Gōng (), the daughter of a slave. The sex handbook Dongxuanzi (, possibly dating to the fifth century AD) also contains examples of female same-sex contact. In the position called The Paired Dance of the Female Blue Phoenixes, two women practice scissoring.