Is it true greece was the founder of the first martial art?

Question

I hear its called pankration or something...

Answer 1

no, the first martial arts had too have come from Africa seeing that the human race started there, but whatever art that was is probably undocumented.

Answer 2

It is not so, Asia had martial arts previous to the development of Pankration

Answer 3

As a word, pankration comes from the adjective pankrates, meaning "all encompassing" or "all powers." Its earliest reference occurs in 648 B. C., when it made its debut in the 33rd ancient Olympic Games, but its introduction into the Olympic program denotes that it had to have become a systematized art long before this date. In short order it became the most popular event of every Greek athletic festival, including the Olympics, usually climaxing the festival following boxing and wrestling. A mark of its enormous popularity came in 200 B. C., when a boys' division was added to the Olympics.

It looks like that although all cultures have always had some form of martial art, once again, the Greeks are among the earliest.  The pankration appears in history way earlier than Taijiquan  starts to appear in about the 12th century, most of the Kung Fu's don't start to appear until the 1700's

Answer 4

Martial arts were founded by the first two humans that decided to settle their differences by violence. Organized training of military in hand to hand combat has its' roots in every civilization. The foremost fighting arts that we study today have their roots in India and followed and grew with the Buddhist movements into China and eastward to the Korean peninsula. The reason most assume for the spread with the Buddhist movement is the reluctance to take life in the Buddhist faith. This may sound contradictory; however consider that the priest were not allowed to carry weapons and were allowed to defend themselves. This led to the training in hand to hand combat. Different sects of Buddhist were allowed to use weapons as the faith evolved yet there was a underlying principal of not taking life unless absolutely necessary. Then there was the founding of the Sun Tsu war academy in ancient China which led to the scientific study of armed and unarmed combat. Medicine and other sciences were studied there as well; realizing that the highly trained soldier was a great asset on the battlefield. There are still great discoverys' being made about this school as China becomes more open.

Answer 5

That is a question hotly debated by historians of the martial arts.

The study of the history of the martial arts is called 'Hoplology'.

http://www.hoplology.com/

1.)  One view held by professional historians is that the martial arts were founded in Greece (Pankration), and from Greece spread to the near and far east.

2.) And another view is that the martial arts were a 'coeval' discovery, that each country or nation invented a martial art independent of other cultures and the martial arts began to influence each other only as explorers and conquerers traveled.

So as it stands, these are the two fundamental positions as to the founding of organized & systematic fighting methods: that they originated in Greece and spread; or they were a 'coeval' discovery and eventually influenced each other.

Answer 6

Nubian_Wrestling

http://wikimartialarts.org/main/index.ph...

Where ever people started, so did martial arts.

There's also a martial art depicted in the drawings of Egyptian pyramids.

Answer 7

There is only one other art that can compare as far as established records and that is the art of KALLIRAYAPUTT from the INDIAN sub continent.It was well established and flourishing before the time of ALEXANDER THE GREAT and included wrestling striking and the use of a wide range of weapons .The GREEK weapons technique centered around the spear and the phalanxe  advance easily taught and used by their conscipts and professional alike.

They were the only army to stop ALEXANDER in his tracks.

The INDIAN art according to records may have had a strong influence on CHINESE methods thru the introduction of BUHDISM  to CHINA but it is likely CHINA already had some methods which were adopted and structured into a learning process by the monks.

The first rudimentary primitive forms probably did occur in AFRICA and were expanded upon and structured over time when the 1st nomads evolved from hunter gatherers to agricultural farmers allowing them to stay in one place for a number of years.Technique would have centered around raiding and ambush and warfare the concept of "self defence" wouldn't enter into it until citys evolved and all the problems of living in citys hasn't changed much from then till now.

Answer 8

Probably after Cain killed Able, Adam taught his other sons how to defend themselves.