The Pammachon Symbol

Around 1600 BC, a volcanic eruption covered Santorini in Greece with a thick layer of pumice and ash, resulting in the remarkable conservation of many artifacts. The Akrotiri Boxer Fresco, a relic freed from the ash in 1967, is one of the oldest surviving depictions of combat sports in the world. The Boxer Fresco dates back almost 4000 years to about 1700 BC.

The fresco portrays two young boys engaged in a type of combat sport. The boys' shaved heads and locks indicate their youth, while their darker skin tone indicates their gender. The boy on the right is completely nude except for his belt, whereas the boy on the left wears jewelry, a mark of higher status. Wearing a belt may have symbolized that the contestants were bearing weapons, as this is evident in many clay statues from the same period. Both boys are wearing gloves on one hand only, i.e. one hand was considered "the weapon hand", the "spear," while the other hand acted as a "shield." Combat sports of this type were popular during the Bronze age and have survived to the modern era with Nigerian dambe boxing and 19th-century Indian vajramushti.

Pammachon today has incorporated these principles into its rule-base, along with equivalent foundations in grappling and striking whose origins lie in the Hellenic-speaking Byzantine Empire. To honor the origins of our sport, the International Pammachon Federation's seal portrays a stylized representation of the Akrotiri Boxer Fresco in the form of the Hellenic letter "Π" for Pammachon (in Greek “Πάμμαχον”). The seal is surrounded by two concentric circles inside which is written the name of the International Pammachon Federation.