Sport-icus! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boxing/Wrestling

Pankration was a very grueling sport which combined both boxing and wrestling. In the sport the rules banned biting and gouging any opponent in the nose, mouth or eyes with fingernails. Punching and kicking anywhere on the body was permitted.

Answer: Yes

Ancient Greece held chariot races. There were two-horse chariots and also four-horse chariots. There were also separate races with foals pulling the chariot. In yet another type of chariot race there were chariots pulled by two mules. The course for such races was made up of twelve laps around the track. The twelve laps were equivalent to nine miles.

Answer: Naval battles

The Romans held naval battles in the Colosseum. To do this the central portion of the Colosseum was flooded with water for the competition to take place. This re-enactment was called the naumachiae. The basin in the Colosseum was 79.35m x 47.2m, which was not as large as the Augustinian basin where thousands of men re-enacted battles. Among others, the Pelopennesian War (431 to 404 B.C.) was re-enacted in the Colosseum. Titus, the Roman Emperor from 79 to 81 A.D. gave a naumachiae in the Colosseum based on that battle.

Answer: Biga

Biga is a two-horse chariot race which was played for sport in ancient Rome. The biga was also used as a form of transportation and also in ceremonies. The driver of a biga is known as a bigarius.

Herpastum was a type of ball game, Naumachia was a sort of re-enactment of naval battles and Sphaeristerium was a large open area where exercising with the use of balls took place after bathing

Answer: Usekh

The usekh was a large collar or necklace awarded, along with money, to the winners of sporting contests. The large collar covered the athlete's shoulders and chest. Sometimes a Usekh contained amulets and precious stones connected with gold.

Answer: True

The Ancient Egyptians did play hockey on teams. They played what we call Field hockey. The Egyptians played field hockey as far back into the past as 2500 BCE (Before the Common Era). From the tomb of Kheti, in Beni Hasan, there are images which show this sport being played.

Answer: Kemari

The sport of Kemari was not unlike a mixture of football/soccer/hacky sack. The players had to keep the ball in the air using parts of their body, except for their hands. Players passed the ball from one to the other in an attempt to not let the ball touch the ground.

The name for the ball was mari and it was generally made from either deer skin or horse skin. The sport was more of a community sport rather than it being a competitive one.

Answer: Sumo

Sumo, or Sumo wrestling, has appeared as far back as the Edo era of the seventeenth to nineteenth century. Sumo is a fighting sport played by two powerful wrestlers who don a belt called a Mawashi. When one of the wrestlers is pushed out of the circle (Dohyo) by the other then that wrestler who is still in the circle wins.

Another way to win is for a wrestler to force the other to touch the ground with a body part (aside from the soles of the feet).

Answer: India

Mizo Inchai, a Maniuri game, was a form of wrestling. A player is defeated if both shoulders are pinned to the ground for a count of six (or five seconds). Another way that a contestant is defeated is if he is lifted into the air and kept suspended for a count of six (five seconds).

A third way that a wrestler is defeated is by being pinned to the ground in any position for a count of six (five seconds).

Answer: Asol App

Asol Aap is a canoe race which was run between the six tribes who lived in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Nicobarese tribes used canoe's as long as one hundred feet with many participants in each canoe. Today such a race was and still is run with only two teams at a time.