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137664

EARLY EVIDENCE OF BOXING IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

EGYPTOLOGY
HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

This paper investigates early evidence of boxing as a sport in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Its representations were relatively rare in both cultures, because of the essentially static nature of their arts. In addition, it is also difficult to distinguish between wrestlers and boxers. The article examines the differences among early pictorial examples from the two cultures dating to the third and second millennia BCE. This article aims also to answer key questions concerning this sport in both cultures: Which culture did practice the sport first? Which one did borrow this sport from the other? It is worth noting that the evidence of boxing in Mesopotamia was earlier than that originating from Egyptian contexts. Moreover, the origins of boxing in Ancient Egypt are uncertain. The article raises another important question, stating, "Do all images in the article are Boxing Scenes or some of them can be considered as combat training?" Despite the disagreement in both cultures, it can be argued that boxing representation in Mesopotamia is clearer than in Ancient Egypt.

DOI

10.21608/shedet.2020.137664

Keywords

Boxing, Boxers, Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt

Authors

First Name

Fawziah

Last Name

Mohamed

MiddleName

Abdullah

Affiliation

Egyptology Department, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University

Email

drfawziahabdullah@gmail.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

——-

Volume

7

Article Issue

7

Related Issue

20393

Issue Date

2020-12-01

Receive Date

2020-05-25

Publish Date

2020-12-31

Page Start

74

Page End

86

Print ISSN

2356-8704

Online ISSN

2536-9954

Link

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/article_137664.html

Detail API

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=137664

Order

5

Type

research articles

Type Code

1,264

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Shedet

Publication Link

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

EARLY EVIDENCE OF BOXING IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023