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![]() Introduction to Recreation |
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Perhaps the activity the most illustrated from ancient Egypt is the many sports and games in which both royal and non-royal
men, women, youths, and children engaged, whether for training and strengthening their bodies or for pleasure and recreation.
In general, sports were divided into two categories: sports of the entertainment and fitness sort included acrobatics, gymnastics,
high jump, hunting, and swimming; sports of the military training sort included archery, boxing, equestrian activity, marathons,
and wrestling. It is difficult to determine whether or not the depictions of these various sports are pictured in the way
the ancients actually played them, but one thing is certain: whether painted or carved or found in tombs, temples, or pyramids,
these records are rich in artistry and massive in quantity; in terms of the latter, nowhere is this more evident than at Beni
Hassan and in Theban tombs, which depict acrobatics, archery, ball games, boxing, dancing, fencing, gymnastics, high-jump,
hockey, hop and jump, horse-riding, running, swimming, weight-lifting, wrestling, and yoga. From the quantity and care the
artists took in documenting these recreational activities, we understand that the ancients held a high reverence for physical
fitness, placing an invaluable role in sports in order to raise the standard of health and of national productivity, and engaging
in such activities with a fervor that is ritualistic. As an example of this, Egyptian men are illustrated as lean, muscular,
and strong and women are shown to be slender and gracefully feminine.
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Bibliography:
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