The Oldest Martial Art!
Three easy questions :wink: 1) What defines a martial art? 2) Which is the oldest 'named' martial art still practised today that their is evidence of? 3) Which is the oldest martial art and where did it originate?

Already had some interesting comments about this subject in the karate section, where Shuto mentioned ancient combative techniques and indigenous war dances etc (Shuto please could you reiterate those points here too) What is everybody's views on these questions???

1) don't know : ) a taught system of self defence? 2) Kalari or Kalaripayattu of ancient India is the world’s oldest martial arts according to some in which there is ancient documents that mention it in. Its still practised today and is said to be the mother of all martial arts in the world... I’m not sure I agree with that though, I also don't think Bodhidarma was solely responsible for bringing martial arts to China and believe that China had its own martial arts long before his arrival. On other sites it is suggested that African martial arts and wrestling are the oldest known martial arts. Tahtib is said to be the Ancient Egyptian art of stick fencing which is also a famous Egyptian folk dance that's considered an African martial art, it is the oldest and possibly one of the last surviving form of Ancient Egyptian Martial Arts alongside Wrestling and Fencing. Also the cultures of Mesoamerica (Olmecs, Toltecs, Aztecs, and Maya) all appear to have had complex military traditions with at least 2 that had martial art traditions (very complex among the Aztecs). There’s also lots of evidence of ancient Greek pankration however i don’t think this is as old as the others. the oldest verified empty hand or weapons training manuals that still exist are copies of General Qi Ji Guang (1528-1587) book titled New Book on Effective Military Techniques however some believe martial arts in China dates back even earlier than this in which some may still have the same name and fundamentals such as Chang Quan long fist see 3. 3) The oldest ‘evidence’ of martial arts in China goes back to the Zhou dynasty (1111-255 BC). There are passages in the Zhuang Zi (a.k.a. Chuang Tzu) that clearly pertain to the psychology and practice of martial arts. The Dao De Jing by Lao Zi contains many principles that are applicable to martial arts, and is similar in point of view to the Sun Zi Bing Fa (Sun Zi's Art of War) which deals directly with martial arts. According to some traditions, however, the first written history of Chinese martial arts comes from the reign of the legendary Yellow Emperor (traditional date of ascension to the throne, 2698 BC). The Yellow Emperor is described as a famous military general, who, before becoming China’s leader, wrote a lengthy treatise about martial arts and Chinese medicine. He is also credited with being the founder of China’s oldest known martial art – chang quan (long fist). That means Chinas martial arts could date back to at least 2650 BC, although it could just be Chinese mythology, then again though China is know to be one of the oldest civilizations, archaeological evidence suggests that China is one of the cradles of the human race. The earliest known human in China, whose fossilized skull was unearthed in Shanxi Province in 1963, is believed to date back to 600,000 BC! Whether China did or did not have the earliest known martial arts may be hard to prove but it certainly was one of if not the, places where martial arts really flourished and developed to similar martial arts that are seen today, and they undoubtedly had a big effect on other martial arts from various regions.

Oldest Martial Art
The oldest Martial art would have to be the caveman. They created weapons to hunt and to fight off others who might attack them. So you could say that weapons like the Staff ,Spear,Club and Sling started there and the techniques to use them would have been handed down from father to son. I would assume that as time progressed the tribe member who was most proficient in the use of each weapon (if not all) would become the teacher of the younger members of the tribe,(Is this not the first Martial Arts System?) As time progresses through the generations and people wander further afield,so they discover and adopt weapons and methods alien to them and blend them with their own.(early crosstraining) Also you have to take into account the changes over time of Body shapes Physique,Flexibility etc, The person of slighter build may have learnt some form of Grappling from a person with a large powerful build,but not having the strength to carry out the technique as taught has adapted and refined it until it works for him. You see this in classes today,not everyone performs Kata the same and the variations are normally due to physical makeup. Oops time to stop rambling Shuto

I agree with taught combat skills being untraceable and going back to caveman days, but what about the oldest 'martial art' that is still practised today? For me it has to be some sort of Chinese Wushu such as long fist