The history of Nuba wrestling as recorded on tomb walls in 11th and 12th Dynastic Egypt, provides a look at the world's oldest known system of combat.
Nuba Wrestling
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The birthplace of humanity is Africa. On this continent, techniques and systems of combat were first established. Kemet, otherwise known as Egypt, is one of Africa’s oldest, and best preserved civilizations. The systematic techniques of combat are today known collectively as martial arts, from the Roman god Mars who was renamed so from the Greek god Ares, who in turn was renamed from the original Kemetic diety Anhur. Systematic methods of combat had long been a tradition of ancient Nubia and were fully represented in the 11th and 12th Kemetic Dynasties. In an area that was once known as Ta-Seti, or "Land of the Bow", and today known as Sudan, archeological finds at Qustul indicates a predynastic civilization in ancient Nubia (also known as Kush) that is at least 3,000 years older than the first Egyptian dynasty. Researcher Bruce Williams of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago has identified images on a limestone, Nubian incense burner discovered in January 1964 by Dr. Keith C. Steele at Qustul. Excavated from Cemetary L, tomb 24, the artifact is known as "The Qustul Incense Burner". Bruce Williams reveals that this artifact depicts royal symbols such as a falcon diety, the White Crown of Upper Kemet, three sacred boats, and castle fortification that were hallmarks of later Kemetic dynasties.
In an area roughly 170 miles south of present day Cairo, along the eastern banks of the Nile river is an area known during it’s time by the people of Kemet as Mahez (the name for a long-horned African antelope that proliferated in that area). It was later referred to by the Greeks as the Oryx provence and is today called Beni Hasan, meaning "hill of the Hasan family"(Arabic: بني حسن). There are 39 rock tombs that exist. These tombs were the resting places for the governors of that region.
Of the 39 tombs, three of them are unique in all of Kemet (Egypt). In these three tombs, hundreds of illustrations represent the oldest known martial arts on Earth. Having inherited this technology from the Nuba in the south, the paintings in the tombs of Governors Baqet, Khety, son of Baqet, and Amenemhat date from around 2,800 B.C., between the 11th and 2th Dynasties. The illustrations represent not only hand to hand combat which consists of grappling, kicking, and punching, but also weaponry (bow and arrow, axe, mace, lance, staff, clubs, stick fighting, and throwing sticks) as well as military technology such as a shielding device known as a testudo, and also castle architecture. For these reasons, martial arts historian and researcher Nijel Binns, author of the book Nuba Wrestling™: The Original Art[1] has referred to Nuba wrestling as the Rosetta Stone of the martial arts. It is the key to unlocking the origins of the world’s present day martial disciplines and understanding the history of martial arts. Modern day 18th century European explorers such as the French Jean-Francois Champollion and the Italian Ippolito Rosellini with their "Franco-Tuscan Expedition" of 1828, a German expedition under Richard Lepsius in 1842, as well as the Englishmen John Gardner Wilkinson and Percy Newberry all went into Kemet and recorded what was written and illustrated on these tomb walls. The most notably of these explorers was Percy Newberry. Under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Egypt Exploration Society) he produced a three volume set titled Beni Hasan[2] which included illustrations traced from the walls of, among others, the tombs of Baqet lll, Khety, and Amenemhat. In so doing he documented aspects of the ancient African martial systems that we have become familiar with in western boxing and Asian martial arts.
The physical description of the tombs at the time of Newberry's survey was recorded in the book The Season’s Work at Ahnas and Beni Hasan and indicated that, "Much of this is in a fearful state of dilapidation, and year by year it is getting worse. Large flakes of painted plaster are falling from the wall; many of the scenes have faded away so completely as to be hardly distinguishable; and in a few years’ time, if active measures are not taken to preserve the tombs, little will remain on their walls to tell of their former beauty." Newberry remarked that he and his team "succeeded in doing nearly all that could be done “to preserve a faithful record of what yet remains.” He added that,
| “ | The tombs have been surveyed and planned by Mr. Fraser, and I have brought back to England outline tracings of all the wall-paintings in six out of the eight painted tombs, as well as copies of all hieroglyphic transcriptions, a fine series of coloured drawings by Mr. Blackden, and nearly a hundred photographs.[3] | ” |
At Beni Hasan, the rock tomb of Khnumhotep II and the three rock hewn tombs belonging to Governors Baqet III, Khety, and Amenemhat contain hundreds of illustrations of fighting figures which makes it the oldest and most prolific visual treatise ever recorded in ancient times. As the worlds first instructional text and like many a Martial arts manual to follow, the tombs provide key martial art techniques, concepts and traditions such as:
have found their way into Europe and Asia from Africa.
Governor Baqet lll’s tomb is identified as Tomb No. 15 by Newberry. In the tomb of Baqet, on the east wall, there are 336 figures grouped either in pairs, sometimes three, or as individual combatants. Of the 336 martial artists, 222 of them are pairs of warriors engaged in empty hand combat.
Moving forward in time from Africa in 2,800 B.C., it is not until about 2,024 years later that the first people outside of Africa study the Nubian techniques of combat in great detail. These people were the ancient Greeks. In 776 B.C. the Greeks began the practice of wrestling in honor of the African God Amon whom they renamed Zeus. Original African names have undergone many name changes and for that reason, the origins of many traditions have become obscure. Kemetic gods were renamed by the Greeks. When the Romans gained power, they in turn renamed what the Greeks had earlier renamed. The Kemetic god Amon became Zeus to the Greeks, and later Jupiter under the Romans. The Kemetic god Auset became Isis to the Greeks and Romans. Thus, many modern accounts of the origins of traditional African arts of wrestling, boxing that were adopted by the Greeks and presented to the western world as the Olympic Games carried the believe that the exact origins of the Games are shrouded in myth and legend. However regarding their origins, the Greeks themselves were very clear.
As depicted in the hundreds of illustrations from the walls of the tombs of Baqet III, Khety, and Amenemhat, martial arts as practiced in ancient Kemet was an all encompassing art that was expressed with kicking, punching, grappling, weaponry, and more. When the Greeks were introduced to this discipline, they chose a name for it; pankration which means all powers. The etymology of the word pankration may reveal it’s Kemetic roots. The prefix "pan" means "all". The suffix "tion", or "ion" denotes action or state of being. The "krat" portion of the word defines the concept of "powers" in pankration. Krat refers to the all inclusive methods of fighting that are exemplified by the practice of several forms of combat. The Greek word "krat" could also refer to the grouping of three words found in an earlier Kemetic vocabulary.
The ancient Kemetic writing system is known as medu neter. The Greeks called it hieroglyphics, or writings of the Gods. In the medu neter the word "Ka" has a double meaning dealing with the spiritual and physical. Ka means the vital energy of the soul. Note the concept and spelling of Ka in ancient Kemet and the words "ki" in Japanese, and "chi" in Chinese. The three words refer to a vital, internal energy. In Kemet, the word ka also means the physical body, or more precisely, "the dead body".
The word "Ra", or "res" means to wake up, to keep awake, or to watch. Ra is also the name given to the Sun which re-news itself by circling to re-appear each day. The word ra speaks of regeneration.
"Te", or "t" means hand. In the ancient Kemetic writing system the symbol for te is a hand. The word te means out of, to go out, to emit, to give, to set, or to place. Te denotes action. Also, note that the Japanese word for hand is also te.
The krat in pankration means powers and may be derived from the older Kemetic concepts of Ka (vital physical and spiritual energy), ra (to rise up, to regenerate), and te (the act of).
It is interesting to note that in Japan, the words Karate (空手), or Karate Do translates to mean 'empty hand way'. Kara means 'empty' and te|手||literally "hand", is the same in the medu neter hand, as noted above. The word "do" means way (in Chinese it is "tao"). Note that legendary martial arts master Masutatsu Oyama wrote in his first book What is Karate?, published in 1958, that "The oldest records we have concerns unarmed combat on hieroglyphics from the Egyptian pyramids...".[4] Oyama makes specific reference to Beni Hasan as the source of martial arts. Likewise, Hawaiian born Kenpo Karate Grandmaster Ed Parker, universally acknowledged "Father of American Karate" wrote in his first book "Kenpo Karate - Law of the Fist and the Empty Hand", that "records seem to link KENPO KARATE (Mr. Parker's emphasis) even back to the time of the Egyptian Empire."[5]