Egypt

Some of the oldest records concerning unarmed combat are found in Egyptian pyramid hieroglyphics and in mural paintings in tombs along the Nile (dated from about 4000 BC) that describe soldiers using fighting techniques that resemble modern boxing. They fought using a leather glove that covered the arm to the elbow and matches often resulted in the death of one of the participants.

Wrestling was also popular in ancient Egypt. Pictures that depict something similar to wrestling are found in the ruins of the Sumerian Kingdom of Mesopotamia, which date to around 3000 BC. Although Egyptians had clear distinction between boxing and wrestling, boxers often used wrestling techniques and vice versa. Murals from the Beni-Hassan Tomb in Egypt, which dates to about 2300 BC, depict a refined style of boxing that later crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Greece, by way of Crete.

Crete

At about 2000 BC, boxing and wrestling were popular in Crete. In Olympia, Cretans built a temple to the goddess Hera, where military training games were held. The Ionians, who invaded Greece in 2000 BC, and the Achaeans, who first arrived in 1800 BC, also held games to their god, Zeus. These events gradually combined until the first Olympic games were held in 1580 BC. The games ended after the Dorian invasions of the twelfth century BC but they were revived sometime between 884 and 776 BC. These early Olympic games were violent and many of the combatants were either wounded or killed. Theagenes, the most noted boxer of the fifth century BC, is said to have beaten 2,202 men by knockout and to have killed over 1,800 men. Milo, the greatest wrestler of the time, trained by lifting a calf everyday until it became a full-grown cow. He would then carry the cow into the Olympic stadium, kill it with a single blow, and proceed eat the entire cow. Empty-hand fighting techniques also developed on mainland Greece.

Greece

The Greek philosopher Plato (900-800 BC) mentions "Skiamachia" (fighting without an opponent), which was a type of shadowboxing that was eventually combined with wrestling and boxing to form "Pankration." By the time of the Greek city-states (700 BC), boxing, wrestling, and other related forms of combat were regular events in the Olympiads. Although there was a distinction between wrestling and boxing in these early times, such techniques as strikes in wrestling and strangling in boxing were common. The first organized school of combat seems to have been the "Palaestra," a school of wrestling in ancient Greece. Greek boxing experienced its classic era from the time of Homer to the close of the fifth century BC and may have been the first martial art to use the "open-hand" as a weapon. Homer described this fighting style in his twenty-third book of the Iliad. He describes games held by Achilles at the funeral of his beloved friend Patroclus. From the poem, it is clear that the combat was violent, with combatants being either seriously wounded or killed.

The Greeks combined wrestling and boxing into a fighting style, called "Pankration" (all powers), which was introduced into the thirty-third Olympic games in 648 BC. Pankration had no rules and any part of the body could be used as a weapon. There were no referees, the combat continued until an opponent held up a finger to indicate submission. One account tells of Arhachion, who, while being strangled to death by an opponent, managed to force his opponent to concede the match by tearing off the opponent's toenails. Pankration proved to be too cruel and it was eventually abandoned by the Greeks. However, the Romans were not so concerned about cruelty so they later revived it for use by gladiators in their circus arenas. Sometimes spectators were asked to decide the fate of a defeated gladiator by giving a thumb up or thumb down sign. However, the signs had a different meaning in Roman times. A thumb up meant finish the opponent, while a thumb down meant sheath your weapon and spare the opponent. Pankration was carried across the Himalayas into China by Alexander the Great in 326 BC.

An interesting point about Roman wrestling is that it was performed while naked in gymnasiums. In fact, the word gymnasium means place to go naked. 

More sophisticated fighting techniques developed as warfare became more organized. Fighting styles that were popular in one region of the world evolved and spread to other regions where they were modified and influenced by different cultures and traditions.

The ppyrrhic dance (a war dance similar to hyung/poomse), Greek forms of wrestling, and especially the Pankration are said to have directly influenced the Indian arts of "Nata" and "Vajramushti." Only in Asia did empty-hand combat develop into an art form where it was regarded as a secret of the state or harbored within the walls of religious monasteries. However, there is scant resemblance between modern Taekwondo and these crude forms of ancient martial arts. Asian empty-hand fighting arts are said to have originated in India.