Editing History of martial arts (section)

===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.