Where and when did the sport handball originate?

I always thought it was an Irish game, but I know it is big in Iceland too?|||Team handball has origins reaching as far back as the antiquity: urania in ancient Greece, harpaston in ancient Rome, fangballspiel in medieval Germany, etc. There are also records of handball-like games in medieval France, and among the Inuit on Greenland, in the Middle Ages. By the 19th century, there existed similar games of haandbold from Denmark, hazena in Bohemia and Slovakia, gandbol in Ukraine, torball in Germany, as well as versions in Ireland and Uruguay.





The first set of team handball rules was published on October 29, 1917 by Max Heiser, Karl Schelenz and Erich Konigh from Germany. After 1919 these rules were further improved by Karl Schelenz. The first international games were played under these rules, between Germany and Belgium for men in 1925 and Germany and Austria for women in 1930|||History of Handball





as told by Tom O'Connor





Growing up in Ireland in the 50's, there were certain facts that were perceived as being self-evident; the sun rose in the east, America was the land of opportunity and handball was an Irish invention. We grew up with stories of Fionn Mc Cool, Cuchulainn and other legendary heroes who, emerging from the Celtic twilight, would relax after their great deeds in battle and hunting by playing hurling (ariel hockey) and handball. Great was the shock in later years to hear that other countries such as Spain, France and Italy were also claiming credit as the original home of the game.





Strict historical research, rather than myth and legend, turns up few clues as to the origins of the game. The elements involved in the play ball, wall, players and rules must have evolved in many different countries at different times. The chroniclers of ancient times would have in the main been concerned with the lives of rulers and kings; leisure activities of the people would be recorded only in so far as they touched on the lives of the nobility.





The first record of ball games with the hand is from 2000 B.C. in Egypt. Their priests of the temple of Osiris in Thebes were depicted on the tombs striking the ball with the hand. Such iconographic evidence is also found in America where ball games formed an integral part of Pre-Hispanic culture. Over 700 ball court sites have been identified from Arizona to Nicaragua. Many having sculptures, bas-reliefs and painted vessels. Showing people engaged in hand-played balls. The oldest are dated as far back as 1500 B.C., and interestingly in only one area is there play involving a wall that depicts the land of the Chichimeca people of the Mexican plateau. A one-wall game is still played in the States around Zacateca, where there are over 400 courts with most of the dimensions 12m x 6m - almost 40' x 20'.





Meanwhile, back in Europe the Greek writer Homer refers to a handball game invented by Anagalla, a princess of Sparta, and describes the action in a picturesque, if not very informative way, "O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play, their shining veils unbound along the skies, tossed and retossed, the ball incessant flies." In Ireland a good server of the ball is said to have a great toss!





Alexander the Great (450 B.C.) is credited with spreading the game to the Greek colonies in Italy, and from there it went to Spain, France and to other parts of the Roman Empire. Around the year 1000 A.D., as Europe emerged from the Dark Ages, mention of handball became more numerous in manuscripts. In France Jeux de Paume (palm play) became popular with both the nobility in their enclosed courts and the ordinary people who played longe-paume on common land. The medieval annul of St. Foix written around 1300 A.D. describes the game. "The exercise consists in receiving the ball and driving it back again with the palm. The game was first played with the bare hand, then with the glove, lined or unlined; afterwards they bound cord or rattin around the hand to make the ball rebound more forcibly."





So far there is no mention in any of the sources of a rebound game against a wall, the game played was one of hand-tennis and this is still played in parts of Spain, France, Holland and Sweden. The original ball used was made of tightly rolled cloth pieces stitched together and this would have given little bounce against a wall. The game of Jeux de Paume with the addition of larger and longer gloves finally became the game of tennis. The hand versus racquet controversy was commented on by Erasmus the Dutch Philosopher in 1524, "You may sweat more but the game is prettier when played with the hand."





About this time, play with the hand against a wall is first mentioned in Scotland in 1427, when King James I paid a heavy price for his addiction to the game. He had given orders to his men to block up a cellar window that was interfering with his handball. A short time later he found that this escape route was cut off when the assassins came to murder him: "Alas in that vault a gap once was where through the King might have fled, but three days hence closed walled had it been by his will; for the ball would run therein when without at the palm he played."





Exactly 100 years later, the Town Statues of Galway of 1527 forbade the playing of ball games against the walls of the town and this is the earliest mention of rebound play in Ireland. The same laws forbade anyone with names beginning with O' or Mac to be in this English occupied town between dusk and dawn. Galway on the west coast of Ireland had many trading links with Spain especially the Basque regions where the game of Pelotamano was played and is still played extensively - it is still very much a matter of controversy as to who introduced wall handball to the other - the jury is still out.|||1950


germany|||Team Handball has origins reaching as far back as ancient Greece(urania). ancient Rome(harpaston) and medieval Germany(fangballspiel). There are also of hand-ball like games in medieval France,and among the Inuit on Greenland. By the 19th Century there existed similar games of (Haandbold) in Denmark,(Hazena) in Bohemia and Slovakia, (Gandbol) in Ukraine, (Torbol)in Germany, as well as versions in Ireland and Uruguay.


The team Handball game that is known today was formed at the end of the 19th cen. in Northern Europe, primarily Denmark,Germany and Sweden. Holger Nielsen drew up rules for a handball game in 1898 and ( published them in 1906).R.N. Ernst did something similar in 1897.


The first set of rules was published on October 29th, 1917 by Heiser,Schelenz and Konigh from Germany.


The first international game under these rules was played in 1925 Belguim Vs Germany (men) and 1930 Germany Vs Austria (women).


Team Handball became an Olympic Sport in 1972 in Munich (men) and in 1976 in Montreal for (women)