Ancient Boxing: A Narrative Discussion from Archaeological and Historical Evidences

Abstract

Boxing is one of the most popular and ancient striking combat sports where two athletes, generally wearing protective gloves, throw punches at each other in a boxing ring for a specified amount of time. Boxing has a golden history that dates back thousands of years, not just hundreds. The most famous evidence of fighting sporting competitions goes back to ancient civilizations: the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt Civilization, Minoan Civilization, Greece Civilization, and Roman Civilization. The present investigation was designed to understand the evolution and pattern of boxing games in the ancient world. This study finds that one of the earliest ancient boxing depictions appeared in a terracotta relief based on ancient Eshnunna, a limestone plaque based on the early Dynastic periods of Sumeria, a terracotta tablet was discovered in a tomb near Larasa in southern Iraq, and many more. The study analyzes the extensive literature on the Greek statue of a sitting nude boxer and explains its existence, face, cauliflower-like ear. The study reported some distinguished observations concerning winning rules, awards, gloves, and injuries in ancient boxing. In essence, the current investigators believe that the most notable findings of this study were that no boxing ring was mentioned in literature, the majority of boxers (males) wore beards, and the majority of ancient battles were depicted on ancient Greek pottery. There was bleeding and facial injuries as the sport was very brutal at that time.