Hockey-like games outside the West

 

 

Games where teams attempt to place a ball or puck into their opponent's goal using sticks have been found throughout history and the world. Historical records show that game was played in various antique civilizations, although it is not possible to know exactly when and where the game began.
4,000-year-old drawings found in the Beni Hasan tombs, in the Nile Valley, Egypt depicted men playing the sport. Other traces show that the Persians, the Romans (a version called paganica) , the Ethiopians, as well as the Aztecs were playing their own variation of the game. The first evidence of a team game was found on bases of statues that were part of the wall built by Themistocles in 478 B.C. Six men are carrying hooked sticks, two of which are opposing each other over a ball in what looks like the bully that starts modern games.
The Irish game of hurling dates from at least 1272 B.C. In Inner Mongolia, China, the Daur people have been playing Beikou (a game similar to modern field hockey) for about 1,000 years.European settlers in Chile in the 16th century described a hockey-like game of the Araucano Indians called chueca (or 'the twisted one' from the twisted end of the stick used by players). In Western Australia, early white settlers witnessed Noongar people played a game called dumbung, in which bent sticks were used to hit a ball made of dried sap from the native peartree. (The game is believed to be the source of the name of Dumbleyung, a town near where it was played.)