When was the first martial art started?

Question

ok, well i have a more than one question.

1.) what year was it started in?

2.) what style was it?

3.) where did it start?

4.) is it still around?

5.) has anything about it changed?

6.) why did the people invent it? (defense, show)

Answer 1

Well since martial arts is the art of war the first humans organizing a system of fighting methods would be the first martial art. Usually when early humans interact with each other they would fight so that could be considered the 1st martial arts. Even hunting with weapons such as spears would be consider a martial art.

But if you wanna know the 1st modern organized systems.

My guess would be boxing or wrestling.  To understand why picked boxing and wrestling as the first is because of Pankration. Pankration(meaning all powers which is a mix of boxing and wrestling) was in the Olympics as far back as 648 B.C. some historians believed that Alexander the Great's conquest brought this style of fighting as far East as India which the Indian monks picked up on upon leaving for China. What the Indians learned later help develop Chinese "Kung Fu" and then Kung Fu later influenced most Asian martial arts.

I believe Boxing was introduced as an organized sport in the Olympics in 688B.C. however it was practiced as self defense long before that.

And the 1st documented wrestling was 2300B.C. in Egypt.

Anyways is Pankration is a mix of boxing and wrestling that means they probably existed before Pankration.

But like I said as long as humans had an organized way of fighting that could be considered a martial art. Some other people could have a martial art that dates back further some martial arts could have been practice by people who we no longer have record of therefore not knowing. This is the earliest style I can think of.

1)At least 648 B.C

2)Pankration

3)Greece

4)"True" Pankration is around but rare. It is very similar to present day Vale Tudo and MMA

5)People do not fight to the death anymore, and is no longer an Olympic sport.

6)The Spartans used it in warfare, and it was also in the Olympics.

*Interesting note* Fights were often to the death because of ancient athletes pride they would rather die than tapout to the opponent. The Spartans boycotted the Olympics because Pankration in the Olympics still had some(but very little) rules.

1)Exact date not sure pre 688 B.C.

2)Boxing

3)Fighting with fist comes pretty natural so every culture probably knew boxing. The Greeks were probably the first to make a fighting system and sport out of it.

4)Heck Yea

5)I'm sure boxing has evolved over the past 2500+years. More refining of techniques.

6)Self defense later adopted as a sport

1)First documented 2300B.C

2)Wrestling

3)Egypt

4)Yes

5)Like boxing, skills and techniques were most likely refined. Different styles and rules such as Greco, freestyle, submission etc..

6)Self defense. Adopted as a sport

Boxing and wrestling are pretty natural so my guess would be they were the first or at least close.(Get two people who do not know anything about martial arts have them fight each other and I bet you'll see punches and most likely one try to take down the other and roll around and punch.)

Answer 2

I'm assuming you are refering to unarmed combat, so, Slavik is right; unarmed combat has existed since Sumerian civilization.  Unarmed combat however, throughout military history, has always been a "backup plan," something you did as an "emergency" in case you lost your weapon or it broke.  Most of the time though it never happened.  It was not until the founding of the Shaolin temple, because of Buddhist beliefs, that unarmed combat was developed more extensively.  Again, before the Shaolin temple, unarmed martial arts were used "in case of emergency," but not as a fighting system in and of itself.

Answering directly;

1)  It was started in Iraq, Sumerian culture.

2)  Its called "boxing" and yes, its still around.

3)  Probably Babylon.

4)  Has it changed; well back then it was bare fisted, but now its gloved, however from what few reccords have been found, stylastically speaking, Boxing hasn't changed much over the centuries.  Boxing is indeed the oldest pugilistic martial art in the world, and it was known across the world.

5)  Again, it was invented "in case of emergency."

Ever hear the expression "you use a pistol to fight your way back to the machine gun you should have brought with you in the first place?"  Well, that was the mentality behind the development of unarmed combat; you had a to keep a soldier fighting, even with their fists if they had to.  Although armies of old prefered weapons for obvious reasons.

As to the very first unarmed combat, developed at length, as a stand alone martial art;

1)  Around the year 700, in the Shaolin temple of China, tradition holds, by the southern Indian monk Boddhidarma, sometimes called "Daruma."

2)  The style, is now known as Shaolin Kung Fu.

3)  It is still around, and a New York monk named Sifu Yang Ming, "the most handsome monk," is making efforts to spread it all over the world.

4)  No, it hasn't changed, at least the style and many of the body conditioning methods.  The strength training methods however, have changed; the modern temple uses a lot of cals mixed with weight training now, the "marrow washing," which is a method of strength training taught in the old temple, has been forgotten and has yet to be rediscovered.

5)  The monks invented it because they needed a non-lethal style of fighting to protect themselves from robbers on their travels.  As well as to protect the temple itself, as the Buddha statues were all plated with solid gold.

Answer 3

Earliest evidence indicates Mesopotamian origins at around 3000 - 2300 BCE. The references are tied to written evidence such as the Gilgamesh Epic and the Rigveda.

Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_...

Answer 4

caveman days when they fought hand to hand or  with spears or with sticks

Answer 5

To answer your question, there is not definite answer. stslavik offers a link to wikipedia, but this is just the first documented evidence of combat practice.

Humans have always fought and any system of fighting used in a war is technical a "martial art." Simply because there is no documented records of fighting systems before the creation of writing (for obvious reasons) does not mean there were none.

As for Pankration, this is a bit of a fallacy perpetuated by the people who have "resurrected" the art. They were show cased on an episode of Human Weapon so this idea got a lot of credence simply because it was on TV.