Zeus was victorious, and Olympic festivals dating from the Eighth Century B.C. The poet Pindar describes how the gods Zeus and Cronus wrestled for possession of the universe along the river Alpheus at Olympia. Wrestling matches were described by the Greek poet Homer, and wrestling became the final and decisive event of the pentathlon, the five-fold contest of the Greek public games. In fact, the maneuvers depicted are more closely related to the present-day sport than are those of such modern variants as sumo, kokh, glima, et al. Hundreds of drawings there demonstrate clearly that most contemporary wrestling holds were performed in ancient Egypt. No archaeological excavation or historical document has depicted wrestling so completely and so technically correct as have drawings in the temple-tombs of Beni Hasan in middle kingdom Egypt. have been found in lavish tombs of kings and other high officials. Wrestling also reached a high stage of development in Egypt, where paintings of wrestlers dating to approximately 2500 B.C. This artifact, dated 2600 B.C., now is housed in the Iraqi national museum. A small bronze statuette of wrestlers, apparently used as a vase, was unearthed in the ruins of Khafaji, 200 miles from Baghdad. Sumerians cast wrestlers in bold relief on stone slabs at least 5,000 years ago, antedating all other artifacts of ancient sport. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions. Wrestling, mankind’s oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization.
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