Editing History of martial arts (section)

==Europe==
{{Main|Historical European martial arts}}
{{Further|History of fencing|Ancient Greek Boxing}}

===Antiquity===
[[File:Pankratiast in fighting stance.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Pankratiast in fighting stance, Ancient Greek red-figure amphora, 440 BC.]]
{{Further|Ancient warfare}}
European martial arts become tangible in Greek antiquity with [[pankration]] and other martially oriented disciplines of the [[ancient Olympic Games]]. Boxing became [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] in Greece as early as 688 BCE. Detailed depictions of wrestling techniques are preserved in vase paintings of the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]]. [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' has a number of detailed descriptions of [[single combat]] with spear, sword and shield.

[[Gladiatorial combat]] appears to have Etruscan roots, and is documented in Rome from the [[260s BCE]].

The papyrus fragment known as [[P.Oxy. III 466]] dating from the 2nd century gives the earliest surviving description in writing of wrestling techniques.

In [[Sardinia]], a [[Mediterranean]] island, a fighting style which has been called ''istrumpa'' was practised in the [[Bronze Age]], as demonstrated by the finding of a little bronze statue (known as "''Bronzetto dei lottatori''" or "bronze of the fighting men"), which shows two fighters struggling with each other on the ground.

===Middle Ages===
{{Further|Medieval warfare|Viking Age arms and armour|Holmgang|Trial by combat}}
[[File:Ms I33 fol 04v.jpg|thumb|200px|Fol. 4v of the I.33]]
Pictorial sources of medieval combat include the [[Bayeux tapestry]] (11th century), the [[Morgan Bible]] (13th century).

The [[Icelandic sagas]] contain many realistic descriptions of [[Viking Age]] combat.

The earliest extant dedicated [[martial arts manual]] is the [[MS I.33]] (c. 1300), detailing [[sword]] and [[buckler]] combat, compiled in a [[Franconia]]n monastery. The manuscript consists of 64 images with Latin commentary, interspersed with technical vocabulary in [[Middle High German|German]]. While there are earlier manuals of wrestling techniques, I.33 is the earliest known manual dedicated to teaching armed single combat.

[[Wrestling]] throughout the Middle Ages was practiced by all social strata. [[Jousting]] and the [[medieval tournament|tournament]] were popular martial arts practiced by nobility throughout the High and Late Middle Ages.

The [[Late Middle Ages]] see the appearance of elaborate fencing systems, such as the [[German school of fencing|German]] or [[Italian school of fencing|Italian]] schools. Fencing schools (''[[Fechtschule]]n'') for the new bourgeois class become popular, increasing the demand for professional instructors (fencing masters, ''Fechtmeister''). The martial arts techniques taught in this period is preserved in a number of 15th-century ''[[Fechtbücher]]''.

===Renaissance to Early Modern period===
{{Further|Early modern warfare}}
The late medieval German school survives into the [[German Renaissance]], and there are a number of printed 16th-century manuals (notably the one by [[Joachim Meyer]], 1570). But by the 17th century, the German school declines in favour of the Italian [[Dardi school]], reflecting the transition to [[rapier fencing]] in the upper classes. Wrestling comes to be seen as an ignoble pursuit proper for the lower classes and until its 19th-century revival as a modern sport becomes restricted to [[folk wrestling]].

In the [[Baroque]] period, fashion shifts from Italian to Spanish masters, and their elaborate systems of [[Destreza]]. In the mid-18th century, in keeping with the general [[Rococo]] fashion, French masters rise to international prominence, introducing the [[foil (fencing)|foil]], and much of the [[Fencing terms|terminology]] still current in modern sports fencing.

There are also a number of Early Modern fencing masters of note in England, such as [[George Silver]] and [[Joseph Swetnam]].

[[Academic fencing]] takes its origin in the Middle Ages, and is subject to the changes of fencing fashion throughout the Early Modern period. It establishes itself as the separate style of [[Mensur fencing]] in the 18th