In addition to board games children in ancient Egypt
played with assortment of tiny fi gurines carved from wood
and clay. Many such fi gurines and toys are found in the Cairo
Museum. Children also played with hoops and sticks, en-
gaged in jumping and whirling contests, and competed in
tug-of-war.THE MIDDLE EAST
BY MARK ANTHONY PHELPS
Defi ning what constitutes sports in the context of leisure ac-
tivities in the ancient Near East is diffi cult before the advent
of Greek colonization in Asia Minor and the later Helleniza-
tion of the region. What passes for sport by modern defi ni-
tion generally constituted three classes in the ancient Near
East: children’s games, military training, and professional ac-
robatics. All this changed aft er the conquest of the Greek king
Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 b.c.e.), as sports and theater
became a major component of social life.
Wrestling is the most widely depicted sport in Mesopo-
tamian texts and artwork. Th e wrestlers are shown naked
except for a type of belt. It seems that the belt was a neces-
sity, owing to its ubiquitous artistic representation and its
appearance in texts. It is not clear whether this equipment
functioned as a grip for wrestling moves or served something
in the capacity of a modern athletic supporter. Th e most fa-
mous literary image of the wrestler in Mesopotamia actually
occurs as a simile in one of the earliest-known epic poems,
wherein Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk, and his foe
Enkidu fi ght “like wrestlers.” A copper vase from the third
and fourth millennia b.c.e. shows the sculpted image of two
wrestlers grasping each other’s belts while balancing large
vases on their heads.
Boxing is the next most commonly presented sport
in iconography and textual evidence. A votive tablet from
around 3000 b.c.e., found at Khafaje (in modern-day Iraq),
shows a pair of boxers along with two pairs of wrestlers. Box-
ers almost universally wear the same belt as wrestlers, leading
one to wonder if there was indeed always a strong division be-
tween the activities. Other representations show boxers wear-
ing typical skirts with some sort of binding on their wrists,
probably functioning in the same fashion as modern taping
for strengthening the joint.
Life-and-death duels served as a spectator sport, if the
Egyptian story of Sinuhe is to be believed. Sinuhe, stranded
in Palestine, becomes adopted into a kin group and manages
to become chief. He then is forced to encounter a “strong man
from Retenu” (referring to Syria-Palestine), doubtless for the
political control of a kin group. Challenged to single com-
bat, he fi ghts with his challenger before spectators, including
women. Th e crowd initially roots for the man they thought
was the underdog, the Egyptian, who soon proves his worth
by killing the challenger.
Th is practice is in line with a scene depicted in the He-
brew Bible (2 Samuel 2:12–17). In this event, 12 representa-tives each of the armies of David and Ishbaal, Saul’s son and
successor, meet near the pool at Gibeon to determine which
army is favored by Yahweh, the Israelite deity, to rule Israel.
Th ese two dozen pair off , grab each other by the hair, and kill
each other with the fl int knives all were carrying. Divine fa-
vor unrevealed, open warfare begins. Th e story of David and
Goliath, told in 1 Samuel 17, is also one of representational
combat to the death through the use of weapons.
Sinuhe and the biblical examples are certainly not sport
by modern defi nition, but the need for witnesses to validate
the outcome of these life-and-death struggles for political su-
premacy fi nds some parallel in the “death for entertainment”
context of gladiatorial shows. Th e fact that all ancient Near
Eastern competition was a refl ection of military training
might suggest that these episodes may well be understood as
sports writ large.
A Phoenician vase depicting runners, a Hittite tablet mak-
ing reference to races at a New Year’s festival, and references to
the New Year’s festival in Babylon call attention to another sport
in the ancient Near East. Th e Bible (Ecclesiastes 9:11) states that
“the race goes not to the swift ,” a reference in all probability to
distance running. It is hard to fathom that there were no horse
or chariot competitions, especially given the Hurrian manu-Game of 58 Holes, made of ivory inlaid with gold and blue paste, from
Megiddo, Palestine, Late Bronze Age, 13th century b.c.e. (Courtesy of
the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)1050 sports and recreation: The Middle East0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1050 1050 10/10/07 2:30:53 PM