The history of sports extends back to the ancient world. The physical activity that developed into sports had early links with ritual and warfare.

Study of the history of sport can teach lessons about social changes and about the nature of the sport itself, as a sport seems involved in the development of basic human skills (compare play).[citation needed] As one delves further back in history, dwindling evidence makes theories of the origins and purposes of sport more and more difficult to support.

As far back as the beginnings of sport, it was related to military training. For example, the competition was used as a means to determine whether individuals were fit and useful for service.[citation needed] Team sports were used to train and to prove the capability to fight in the military and also to work together as a team (military unit).

Cave paintings found in the Lascaux caves in France appear to depict sprinting and wrestling in the Upper Paleolithic around 15,300 years ago.[2][3][failed verification] Cave paintings in the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia dating back to the Neolithic age (c.  7000 BCE shows a wrestling match surrounded by crowds.[4][failed verification] Neolithic Rock art found at the cave of swimmers in Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir in Egypt shows evidence of swimming and archery being practiced around 10,000 BCE.[5] Prehistoric cave paintings in Japan depict a sport similar to sumo wrestling.[6]

It is likely that after the switch from hunter-gathering to farming becoming the primary means of providing food became dominant, those individuals who had previously been assigned to the Hunter role – and were likely naturally more physically built for the purpose – had little way to utilize their skill sets in a practical setting anymore, so instead entered a form of perpetual preparation for hunting and practicing the skills required, which then let to competitive bouts intended to indicate whoever was the most “prepared” for the different elements of the hunt; for example, the speed to chase down, strength to wrestle down or accuracy to rapidly dispatch the prey and associated wagering on the outcomes of contests, which then evolved gradually into what we would today recognize as sports.

Various representations of wrestlers have been found on stone slabs recovered from the Sumerian civilization.[8] One showing three pairs of wrestlers was generally dated to around 3000 BCE.[9] A cast Bronze figurine,[10] (perhaps the base of a vase) has been found at Khafaji in Iraq that shows two figures in a wrestling hold that dates to around 2600 BCE. The statue is one of the earliest depictions of sport and is housed in the National Museum of Iraq.[11][12] The origins of boxing have also been traced to ancient Sumer.[9] The Epic of Gilgamesh gives one of the first historical records of sport with Gilgamesh engaging in a form of belt wrestling with Enkidu. The cuneiform tablets recording the tale date to around 2000 BCE; however, the historical Gilgamesh is supposed to have lived around 2800 to 2600 BCE. The Sumerian king Shulgi also boasts of his prowess in sport in Self-praise of Shulgi A, B, and C.[13] Fishing hooks not unlike those made today have been found during excavations at Ur, showing evidence of angling in Sumer at around 2600 BCE