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Tailteann Games (ancient)
The Tailteann Games, Tailtin Fair, Áenach Tailteann, Aonach Tailteann, Assembly of Talti, Fair of Taltiu or Festival of Taltii were funeral games associated with the semi-legendary history of Pre-Christian Ireland. There is a complex of ancient earthworks dating to the Iron Age in the area of Teltown where the festival was historically known to be celebrated off and on from medieval times into the modern era. History and archaeology The games were founded, according to the '' Book of Invasions'', by Lugh Lámhfhada, the Ollamh Érenn (master craftsman or doctor of the sciences), as a mourning ceremony for the death of his foster-mother Tailtiu. Lugh buried Tailtiu underneath a mound in an area that took her name and was later called Tailteann in County Meath. The event was held during the last fortnight of July and culminated with the celebration of Lughnasadh, or Lammas Eve (1 August). Modern folklore claims that the Tailteann Games started around 1600 BC, with some so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aonach
An aonach or óenach was an ancient Irish public national assembly called upon the death of a king, queen, or notable sage or warrior as part of ancestor worship practices. As well as the entertainment, the óenach was an occasion on which kings and notables met under truce and where laws were pronounced and confirmed. The Aonach had three functions: honoring the dead, proclaiming laws, and funeral games and festivities to entertain. The first function took between one and three days depending on the importance of the deceased, guests would sing mourning chants called the '' Guba'' after which druids would improvise songs in memory of the dead called a '' Cepóg''. The dead would then be burnt on a funeral pyre. The second function would then be carried out by the Ollamh Érenn, giving out laws to the people via bards and druids and culminating in the igniting of another massive fire. The custom of rejoicing after a funeral was then enshrined in the '' Cuiteach Fuait'', games of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. While they were reported to have been literate, they are believed to have been prevented by doctrine from recording their knowledge in written form. Their beliefs and practices are attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans and the Greeks. The earliest known references to the druids date to the 4th century BC. The oldest detailed description comes from Julius Caesar's ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (50s BC). They were described by other Roman writers such as Cicero, Cicero (44) I.XVI.90. Tacitus, and Pliny the Elder. Following the Roman invasion of Gaul, the druid orders were suppressed by the Roman government under the 1st-century AD emperors Tiberius and Claudius, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves different grappling-type techniques, such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins, and other grappling holds. Many different wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat sports, and military systems. Wrestling comes in different forms, the most popular being professional wrestling, which is a form of athletic theatre. Other legitimateThe term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to predetermined professional wrestling, which is very different from the legitimate (or real-life) wrestling combat predominantly detailed in this article. competitive forms include Greco-Roman, freestyle, judo, sambo, folkstyle, catch, shoot, luta livre, submission, sumo, pehl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who practices archery is typically called an archer, bowman, or toxophilite. History Origins and ancient archery The oldest known evidence of arrows (not found with surviving bows) comes from South Africa, South African sites such as Sibudu Cave, where the remains of bone and stone arrowheads have been found dating approximately 72,000 to 60,000 years ago.Backwell L, d'Errico F, Wadley L.(2008). Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35:1566–1580. Backwell L, Bradfield J, Carlson KJ, Jashashvili T, Wadley L, d'Errico F.(2018). The antiquity of bow-and-arro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swordfighting
Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword. The formation of the English word "swordsman" is parallel to the Latin word ''gladiator'', a term for the professional fighters who fought against each other and a variety of other foes for the entertainment of spectators in the Roman Empire. The word ''gladiator'' itself comes from the Latin word ''gladius'', which is a type of sword. Europe Classical history The Roman legionaries and other forces of the Roman military, until the 2nd century A.D., used the gladius as a short thrusting sword effectively with the '' scutum'', a type of shield, in battle. According to Vegetius, the Romans mainly used underhanded stabs and thrusts, because one thrust into the gut would kill an enemy faster th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boxing
Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time. Although the term "boxing" is commonly attributed to western boxing, in which only fists are involved, it has developed in different ways in different geographical areas and cultures of the World. In global terms, "boxing" today is also a set of combat sports focused on Strike (attack), striking, in which two opponents face each other in a fight using at least their fists, and possibly involving other actions, such as kicks, Elbow (strike), elbow strikes, Knee (strike), knee strikes, and headbutts, depending on the rules. Some of these variants are the bare-knuckle boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Lethwei, savate, and Sanda (sport), sanda. Boxing techniques have been incorporated into many ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spear
A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since modern times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge (shape), diamond, or Glossary of leaf morphology, leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp Tine (structural), points, with or without barbs. Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting as a melee weapon (including weapons such as lances and Pike (weapon), pikes) and those designed for throwing as a ranged weapon (usually referred to as javelins). The spear has been used throughout human history as a weapon for hunting and/or fishing and for warfare. Along with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurling
Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of players and much glossary of Gaelic games terms, terminology. The same game played by women is called camogie ('), which shares a common Gaelic root. The objective of the game is for players to use an Fraxinus excelsior, ash wood stick called a hurl or Hurley (stick), hurley (in Irish a ', pronounced or in English) to hit a small ball called a ' (pronounced in English) between the opponent's goalposts either over the crossbar for one point or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a gaelic football and Hurling positions#Goalkeeper, goalkeeper for three points. The ' can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air or struck on the ground with the hurley. It can be kicked, or slapp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Jump
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing. Since ancient times, competitors have successively improved their technique until developing the universally preferred Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar. The discipline is, alongside the pole vault, one of two vertical clearance events in the Athletics at the Summer Olympics, Olympic athletics program. It is contested at the World Championships in Athletics and the World Athletics Indoor Championships, and is a common occurrence at track and field meets. The high jump was among the first events deemed acceptable for women, having been held at the Athletics at the 1928 Summer Olympics, 1928 Olympic Games. Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) is the world record holder with a j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a group are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". This event has a history in the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympic event for men since the first Olympics in 1896 and for women since 1948. Rules At the elite level, competitors run down a runway (usually coated with the same All-weather running track, rubberized surface as running tracks, crumb rubber or vulcanized rubber, known generally as an all-weather track) and jump as far as they can from a wooden or synthetic board, 20 centimetres or 8 inches wide, that is built flush with the runway, into a pit filled with soft damp sand. If the competitor starts the leap with any part of the foot past the foul line, the jump is declared a foul and no distance is recorded. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. With the decline of a living bardic tradition in the modern period, the term has loosened to mean a generic minstrel or author (especially a famous one). For example, William Shakespeare and Rabindranath Tagore are respectively known as "the Bard of Avon" (often simply "the Bard") and "the Bard of Bengal". Oxford Dictionary of English, s.v. ''bard'', n.1. In 16th-century Scotland, it turned into a derogatory term for an itinerant musician; nonetheless it was later romanticised by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Etymology The English term ''bard'' is a loan word from the Celtic languages: Gaulish: ''bardo-'' ('bard, poet'), and ('bard, poet'), ('singer, poet'), Middle Breton: ''b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
