Splendid is the Sun: The 5,000 Year History of Hockey

The history of hockey is the story of human cultural interaction and geographic migration. It is a game that spread worldwide from its original home in ancient Mesopotamia, along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, moving over the centuries across much of the ancient and modern world. As human society developed, the game of hockey became closely associated with practices of religion. At one point, ancient hockey and religion merged. The result being that these two disparate elements of ancient society became part and parcel of one. Ancient hockey became a celebration of religion. Later it became the game of legends, a celebration of man and his gods. In modern annals there exists the great myth that Canadians invented hockey. In fact, the converse is true: hockey invented Canadians.