Sports History Archive
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The production of shows in the cities of the Roman Empire: A study of the Latin epigraphic evidence
Posted on August 30, 2012 | No CommentsThere are several hundreds of Latin inscriptions which record the production of games (in the sense of "Shows" or "Spectacles") outside Rome by local magistrates, priests and private benefactors. This material is the subject of this dissertation -
Politics, Society, and Greek Athletics: Views from the Twenty-first Century
Posted on August 5, 2012 | No CommentsIn the twenty-first century, anyone interested in the Olympics possesses infinitely more resources: inscriptions, archaeological sites, and vase paintings not known to Mercurialis, Faber, and West, who concerned themselves primarily with compiling the literary evidence. -
The ancient Greek origins of sports medicine
Posted on August 5, 2012 | No CommentsThe ancient link between medicine and sport is said to be best examplified in Galen (130-201 AD). His writings on the value of exercise and hygiene are often taken to be the first scientific works of this kind. -
Sports Spectators from Antiquity to the Renaissance
Posted on July 27, 2012 | No CommentsThe Greeks were the first peoples to approach sports not merely as an aspect of cult or a preparation for warfare but as ends in themselves, activities engaged in for intrinsic as well as extrinsic motives. -
Olympic renascences: how democratic were the Ancient Olympics?
Posted on July 23, 2012 | No CommentsHow much, if any, authority or inspiration for this modern Olympic invention could be drawn from ancient Greek Olympic precedent? -
Wrestling in Ancient Nubia
Posted on July 8, 2012 | No CommentsThe most popular athletic contest in the classical world was wrestling. The literary and material culture is replete with evidence illustrating the prevalence of wrestling and the wrestling motif. -
Ancient Ballgames of Mesoamerica
Posted on March 24, 2012 | No CommentsWhen the Spanish first sailed to Latin America they found several large, well organized civilizations occupying the land. In the late 1500s several Spanish accounts describe a game played by the native peoples of Mesoamerica. -
Sports Sites in Ancient Anatolia: Stadiums
Posted on March 4, 2012 | No CommentsAnatolia where civilizations of very great importance have flourished since ancient times has witnessed and still bears some of the most important sport sites of antiquity. -
A Historical Study of Athletics in Ancient Athens to 322 B.C.
Posted on February 24, 2012 | No CommentsAthens and its athletics had a constructive and harmonious relationship overall. The Athenian as victor, benefactor or spectator gained glory, recognition or pleasure, and the city benefitted from flattering festivals and facilities and from an enhanced civic consciousness. -
Submission Fighting and the Rules of Ancient Greek Wrestling
Posted on December 26, 2011 | No CommentsThe Ancient Greek sports are remarkable in human history and instructive to those interested in promoting athletics due to their recorded longevity of more than a millennium, their high levels of participation amongst the people of the time, and the great degree of enthusiasm clearly demonstrated for these sports through period artwork and through remunerations for victorious athletes.
