Combat Sports: Wrestling. Aside from running, combat sports, including wrestling and stick fighting (fencing), were practiced by commoners in ancient Egypt. Wrestling is the most-depicted sport in ancient Egyptian art. A Predynastic (circa 3100-3000 B.C.E.) palette depicts a wrestling match. The Dynasty 5 (circa 2500- 2350 B.C.E.) tomb of Ptahhotep, a vizier known for his wisdom literature, shows six stages in the wrestling match between a pair of combatants. One of the wrestlers is Akhethotep, son of the tomb's owner. He is depicted wrestling a young man who is of the same age, since they both wear the side lock of hair, suggesting that there were still quite young. They are shown naked, also a sign that they have not reached maturity. Their movements resemble modern freestyle wrestling.

Wrestling in Dynasty 12. The most frequent wrestling scenes were...