The Front Kick in Ancient Pankration: Testing Movement Feasibility in Artifacts Through Constrained Kinematic Analysis
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Ancient depictions of Pankration techniques have traditionally been interpreted through qualitative comparison with modern combat sports, without systematic biomechanical evaluation. The present study examines whether postural configurations derived from archeological artifacts are geometrically compatible with a continuous sagittal-plane trajectory under constrained inverse kinematics. Methods: A reduced planar humanoid model with three active rotational degrees of freedom was implemented in MATLAB Simulink(2024b), and artifact-derived initial and terminal postures were treated as boundary conditions. An analytical inverse kinematics solution was used to generate a continuous end-effector trajectory, from which joint kinematics and center-of-gravity displacement were computed. Motion capture data from ten participants were used solely to assess whether the generated trajectory is physically executable within human joint limits. Results: The results demonstrated strong agreement in selected local horizontal joint trajectories, while larger discrepancies were observed in vertical motion and global center-of-gravity behavior, reflecting the limitations of the reduced model. Conclusions: The study provides a reproducible framework for evaluating the kinematic feasibility of artifact-derived movements under explicitly defined constraints, limited to the assessment of geometric compatibility and physical executability.
Source: Biomechanics
Authors: Andreas Bourantanis, Weijie Wang
Institution: University of Dundee
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,207
OpenAlex ID: W7160022187