Hockey Ancestors
Games where players hit a ball (or something similar) with a stick can be found in Ancient Egypt (i.e., over 4000 years ago) and in many other civilizations like Ancient Persia, Ancient Greece, Aztec Empire, etc.
Hockey-Like Games
The following list contains an example of the hockey-like games in the past 4000 years.
- beikou was played in China and Mongolia;
- hurling was played in Ireland;
- shinty was played in Scotland;
- cammag was played in Isle of Man;
- field hockey was played, e.g., in England. Nowadays, field hockey is the most popular sport out of the named ones and the International Hockey Federation has 128 members (year 2015). Btw, this is more than Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) with 74 members (year 2015).
- bandy or sometimes Russian hockey, or banto was played, e.g., in England. Nowadays, bandy is the second most popular sport out of the named ones and the Federation of International Bandy has 32 members (year 2015).
These games cannot be considered as direct ancestors of the ice hockey. They are “only” similar games in the history of our civilization. Check out main theories about birthplace of the modern ice hockey (i.e., Indians, British soldiers, Iceland, Europe).
