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| Worlds oldest evidence of Oiled Wrestling - by Mohamed el-Fers | ||||
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It is the oldest known evidence of oil-coated wrestling, that unique and highly esthetic ´mother of all powersports´. Anyone who´d ever seen oilwrestlers recognize immediately the characteristic position of the men in this 4650 year old Babelonic bronze, found in the Chafadji Temple.Wrestling was a sport at the time the earliest civilization with writing developed in the lands around and between the Tigris and Euphrate. The stone age was transcended, as people learned how to melt and shape copper, gold, and silver. Pictographic writing was first used by the Sumerians about 3400, and by 3000 BC this had evolved into cuneiform words and syllables. The city of Uruk had 50,000 people protected by defensive walls.in 3000 BC. Documents written about 2600 BC describe major conflicts between the city-states of Ur, Uruk, Umma, and others. In the century the old Babelonic bronze of the two oilwrestlers was made king Gilgamesh ruled over Uruk, in China the first silk was manufactured and pharao Khufu built the largest of the pyramids at Gizeh. Sad enough historians showed little interest in sport. They go wild for the legal documents, contracts and business transactions in the libraries of Shuruppak and Eresh (2500 BC). Learn everything about state bureaucracies. Okay, there were wrestling-festivals from were new leaders arose, but thats looked upon and hardly worth a study. First those rough wrestling-hero´s have to become aristocrats. The historian studies the schools where the sons of aristocracy were disciplined by caning and trained as scribes for the temple. Oilwrestling was a regularly organized event. Each
city-state had its own contest. Organized by the lugal
(meaning literally "great man") and under the
protection of the local deity. Before the match the god or goddes was worshipped by the pehlivans by clasping their hands in front of their chests. Below the king or governor laws made clear distinctions between three classes. Though women had some rights, they were not equal to men and not classiefied. Of the three distinct classes the top was formed by the officers in the army. Some renowed wrestlers and rewarded with large estates. They were in the same high class as priests and administrators. The middle class was formed by farmers, artisans, business men and teachers. The lowest being slaves, who had been captured in war or were dispossessed farmers or sold by their families. Slavery was not stigmatized by race but considered a misfortune out of which one could free oneself through service, usually in three years. Pastoral peoples traded with the farmers and villagers. No feast was complete without a wrestling contest. Protection of surplus goods and valuable construction was required to guard against raiding parties. People trained their ability for success, as those who failed lost their privileges. Laws apparently were devised to prevent abuses and as a way to settle disputes. Cities took the step from police protection under law to the organization of retaliatory attacks by an army. The skills of wrestlers selected over a long period of evolution seem to have given men (more than women) a tendency to gang up and work together in defeating violent attacks. After the fall of the last Sumerian dynasty about 2000 BC, some Sumerian scribes wrote chronicles of their long past. Although these have been lost, lists of their kings and some accounts edited into later Babylonian chronicles have been found. The first dynasty after the deluge was in the Akkadian region northwest of Sumer in the city of Kish, ten miles east of what became Babylon. The first legendary ruler Etana was said to have ascended to heaven on the back of an eagle. The oldest historical king, Mebaragesi, ruled Kish about 2700 BC and apparently overcame the Sumerians' eastern neighbor at Elam, for he is said to have carried away their weapons as spoil. The second dynasty at Uruk in Sumer itself must have
overlapped with the first, because it was the legendary
fifth king of that dynasty, Gilgamesh, who was attacked
by the last Kish king Agga. An ancient account told the
following story: Agga having besieged Uruk sent envoys to
Gilgamesh with an ultimatum. Gilgamesh went to his city's
elders, suggesting that they not submit but fight with
weapons. However, the elders came to the opposite
conclusion. So Gilgamesh took his proposal to the
"men of the city," and they agreed with him.
Gilgamesh was elated and said to his servant Enkidu,
"Now, then, let the (peaceful) tool be put aside for
the violence of battle." In Lagash distant kings of Kish appointed local governors. Priesthood became corrupted and greedy for land and taxes. Finally a strong man and wrestling champion named Urukagina threw off the allegiance to Kish and proclaimed himself king of Lagash. Pehlivan Urukagina instituted sweeping reforms directed against the extortion of the priesthood. A priest was no longer allowed to "come into the garden of a poor mother and take wood" nor to take fruit as tax. Burial fees were greatly reduced. Temple officials were forbidden to take the god's revenues or to use temple lands and cattle as their own. Owners could refuse to sell their houses unless they got the price they asked. Widows and orphans were protected, and artisans did not have to beg for their food. . Unfortunately after only eight years of this rule by the world's first known reformer, the army of Umma led by its governor, Lugalzagesi, attacked Lagash, burnt the shrines, and carried off the golden statue of Ningirsu. What happened with the wrestler-king Urukagina is not known, but his defeater Lugalzagesi went on to conquer and claimed all the land between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Including the Tigris and Euphrates. He was defeater by Sargon the Akkadian 24 years later in about 2390 BC. According to legend Sargon did not know his father and claimed his mother was a "changeling," Sargon marched against Uruk to attack Lugalzagesi, who, though he had fifty governors under his command, was defeated, captured, and brought to Kish where he was yoked by the neck to Enlil's gate. Ambitious to expand his new empire and gain material resources, Sargon crossed the Tigris River and attacked four rulers in Iran, eventually defeating them and making the kings his vassals. He then went northwest where he prostrated himself before the grain-god Dagan who "gave" him the upper region of Mari, Iarmuti, and Ebla to the cedar forest (Lebanon) and the silver (Taurus) mountains, thus gaining ample timber and precious metals. Some even believe that Sargon crossed the western sea and landed on Cyprus and Crete. Sargon ruled over this vast empire until his death, but even at the end he was still fighting battles against a major revolt, destroying a vast army. He was succeeded by his son, Rimush, who put down the revolts in Sumer, Iran, and Elam; but his battles involving tens of thousands of troops may have angered his administrators because after only nine years they "killed him with their tablets," His brother Manishtusu secured silver mines and diorite for statues. His son, Naram-Sin, also chose war for the northwestern copper and tin needed for bronze as well as the southern silver. About 2183 BC Ur-Nammu, a former wrestling-champion who became governor of Ur proclaimed himself King of Ur, Sumer, and Akkad. This king, Ur-Nammu is credited with the oldest known code of laws.
If a defending witness refuses to testify by oath, the lawsuit must be paid; and the fine for perjury was fifteen shekels of silver, a shekel being a half ounce. According to the ancient text Ur-Nammu established "equity in the land and banished malediction, violence, and strife. Pehlivan Ur-Nammu freed his land of thieves, robbers and rebels. His code and "principles of equity and truth" were not as harsh as later laws of Hammurabi or Moses. Crimes involving physical injuries were not always punished by death or mutilation but often by paying compensation in silver instead. Ur-Nammu promoted wrestling festivals, sanctioned extensive building in canals and temples, erecting large ziqqurats in Ur, Uruk, Eridu, Nippur, and other cities, but he died abandoned on the battlefield in an unknown war and was succeeded by his son, Shulgi, who ruled for 47 years. From 2150 to 2094 BC Shulgi and his son, Amar-Sin, ruled over an empire more unified than the Akkadian empire of Sargon. The city-states became administrative districts governed by officials observed by royal inspectors and replaced by royal commands. Military affairs were controlled by the monarch and the generals he appointed. Fortresses guarded the main roads, and royal couriers were given rations of food at each stop. From thousands of administrative tablets scholars have learned that the state had now overwhelmed the importance of the temple and private property. The government owned and operated large factories, workshops, and trading posts, and oversaw thousands of laborers in agriculture, industry, public works, civil service, and police. Workers were either freemen who paid taxes in corvées and military service, lesser paid serfs under the king's protection, or slaves. Officials received free meat, beer, and clothes and could own houses, fields, asses, and slaves. Governors and generals who were paid by taxes could be quite wealthy. In a middle class between these two extremes were some merchants and small land owners who farmed by borrowing at one-fifth to one-third interest rates. Amar-Sin was succeeded by his brother, Shu-Sin, who ruled for eight years, coming into conflict with rough people in the northwest called the Martu, who were contemptuously described as not knowing about grain or agriculture or houses or burials but were mountain boors eating raw meat. But they seem to have been grat oilwrestlers. That Babelonic body of evidence, that tiny bronze, excavated near the Chafadji-temple, makes it as clear as plain day-light that oilwrestlers, pictured with oilvessels on their head, is not the oldest known proof of the existence of oilwrestling yet. In Egypt is in limestone from the tomb of Ptahhoteb near Sakkara from the 5th dynasty (about 2650 BC). From the same period as the Chafadji-bronze but about 50 years older. There is also the about 4000 years old painting in an oilwrestlers-tomb near Beni Hasan. As pictured in The History of KIRKPINAR Oilwrestling. © by Mohamed el-Fers VISIT ALSO THE DIGITAL MUSEUM OF OILWRESTLING
The very best Oilwrestlingpictures at The introduction of traditional Turkish oilwrestling in Europe was initiated by Veyis Güngör and Mohamed el-Fers. The first Amsterdam Kirkpinar was in 1997. Due to its unique opportunities for photographers and filmers alike, that first Amsterdam KIRKPINAR was widely covered by the international media in the Netherlands and Turkey as well as CNN. Nowadays the Amsterdam KIRKPINAR is the most successful ethnic sportevent in the Netherlands as well as in Europe. It is not hard to relish and enjoy the great moments of the Edirne and Amsterdam KIRKPINARs with the very best of oilwrestling filmed by MokumTV. This local Amsterdam television broadcaster introduced as first in the world Turkish Oilwrestling on a weekly schedule on the 4th of September 1996. And the show "Most Macho" is still running every monday evening on the local channel.
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