Ancient Scots played a shinty (similar to field hockey), and in Persia, they played an early version of polo. Cuju, considered by some to be an early form of soccer, originated in Ancient China. Hurling was played in Ancient Ireland, and a rugby-like sport known as harpastum was played in Ancient Rome. The Mesoamerican ball game and a Mayan ballgame called Pitz were first played a few thousand years ago. Ball gamesĪ number of sports centering around the use of a ball also developed around this time. It went on to become more popular in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The sport of boxing may have originated in Ancient Sumer, where participants likely boxed with bare fists. For example, high jump involved jumping over people who sat in place as obstacles rather than a stationary bar. The competitions often looked different from what we see today. Sports often associated with track and field today, like high jump, long jump, and javelin, were popular in Ancient Egypt. It would later go on to be adapted in the Roman Empire for military training. In Ancient Greece, one of the primary sports to develop was gymnastics, which tested physical strength, coordination, and dexterity. In addition, some new sports began to emerge. Though these civilizations were distinct in a number of ways, it appears that many of them featured efforts to organize athletic events in a more official way. While insular farming communities would persist for thousands of years, larger and more complex civilizations began to develop, creating what we often refer to as Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, etc. And in times of war, physical training may have been employed to prepare for combat. Instead of requiring them for survival, humans began to associate those activities with competition, recreation, or even religious practices. The shift to a agricultural society changed how people participated in athletic activities. Due to the physical endurance and strength required to hunt, many individuals participated in activities that had an athletic nature, like chasing down prey or archery hunting. Some of the earliest sports appear to include sprinting, wrestling, swimming, and archery.ĭuring this time, most societies had a hunter-gatherer culture. While it’s unknown exactly when humans started playing sports, some cave paintings indicate that these activities could date back as far as 15,000 years. Let’s take a closer look at how popular sports have been practiced around the world and the detailed language that’s been developed to describe them. The history of sport is undeniably vast, there are some key points over time that have made a significant impact on the development of these activities. Since before modern civilization, humans have used sports as a way to improve their physical fitness, compete for coveted honors, or enjoy recreational activity within their communities.Īlthough athletics have a long history that extends back thousands of years, many of the organized sports we know and love today were developed in the last few hundreds years. Sports have been an integral part of many cultures around the world for centuries.
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