Mesoamerican Ballgame

1. Mesoamerican Ballgame “Game of Life and Death” Mr. Williamson

2. The Mesoamerican Ballgame The Mesoamerican ballgame was a sport with ritual associations played for over 3000 years by the pre-Columbian peoples of Mesoamerica. The Aztec ball game was actually a revision of an ancient Mesoamerican game that was played by many peoples including the Mayans. It may have originated with the ancient Olmec civilization. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modern version of the game, Ulama, is still played in a few places by the people of Central America today.

3. Ball Courts A Mesoamerican ball court is a large stone structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for over 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame, particularly the hip-ball version of the ballgame. Over 1,300 ball courts have been identified, 60% in the last 20 years alone. Although there is a large variation in size, in general all ball courts are the same shape: a long narrow alley flanked by two walls with horizontal, vertical, and sloping faces. Although the alleys in early ball courts were open-ended, later ball courts had enclosed end-zones, giving the structure an I - shape when viewed from above.

4. Ball Court

5. Ball Courts

6. Ball Court

7. Ballgame in Codices

8. Playing the Game On each side of a playing alley were two long parallel walls against which a rubber ball was resounded and bounced from team to team. Points were scored when opposing ball players missed a shot at the vertical hoops placed at the center point of the side walls, were unable to return the ball to the opposing team before it had bounced a second time, or allowed the ball to bounce outside the boundaries of the court.

9. Playing the Game The ball itself was of solid rubber and weighed around 8 pounds; injuries or even death could occur from its impact on vital parts of the body. A number of ways of playing the game are known; one used a bat, another used a paddle or padded hands to hit the ball and still another allowed the ball to be kicked with the feet.  However, in the best known form of the game, the ball could only be struck with the hips, buttocks, knees, or elbows. It drew many spectators and almost always involved heavy gambling and music. Watch a game:

10. Equipment During the playing of the Mesoamerican ballgame, athletes wore special equipment to protect them from injury and to help deflect and hit the ball.  Equipment needs varied somewhat over time but most commonly headdresses or helmets protected the head, quilted cotton pads covered the elbows and knees and heavy belts or yokes, probably of leather or basketry, were worn around the waist.  These yokes, however, and special items known as Palmas, Hachas and Manoplas were also made in heavy stone and are clearly associated with the ancient ballgame. 

11. Equipment

12. Equipment Manoplas, or Handstones, would have been useful in hitting the ball or protecting a participants hand as he fell to the floor of the court in play.  Palmas and hachas, however, seem to have little purpose in the game.  The Palmas, shown worn at the front of the yoke, are too fragile to have survived the rigorous play.  The Hachas, which dangle from the belt or yoke, at first glance also seem useless decoration.  Can you dress an athlete?

13. Players Ballplayer Wearing Deer Headdress, Late Classic Period, Maya, A.D. 700-900 Monument With Decapitated Ballplayer, Early Post classic Period, Veracruz, c. A.D. 900-1200

14. Where did we get Mascots?

15. Stakes of the Game At the end of the ritual competition the captain of the defeated team actually lost his head (although some scholars argue it was the winner who was sacrificed).  In illustrations from Pre-Columbian books such as the Codex Borgia and on carved stone friezes decorating the parallel walls of magnificent ball courts at the sites of Chichen Itza and El Tajin, the decapitation of one team captain by the other, or by a priest, is clearly shown.

16. Codex Borgia

17. Role of the Game The Mesoamerican ball game had its origin in the cosmic view and religious beliefs of the Mesoamericans.  The most common interpretation sees the ball and its movement in the court as the movement of heavenly bodies in the sky.  The game is viewed as a battle between the sun, and its life giving light, against the moon and stars who represent the idea of darkness. The opposing forces of day and night, dark and light, good and evil, life and death are symbolically acted out on the ball court.

18. Role of the Game Clearly associated with this view of the game is the cult of fertility, the enduring need of agricultural peoples for the yield of the earth which depends on the life giving warmth and light of the sun. Human sacrifice by decapitation is a reoccurring theme associated with ball courts and ballgame. The streams of blood that spurt from the decapitated victim may be seen as fertilizing the earth or perhaps as an offering of food to the sun in its battle against the forces of night.

19. Mayan Hero Twins In the Maya region this cosmic battle is seen in the creation myth of twin brothers who play a ballgame in the underworld against the gods of death and pestilence.  Their victory against the forces of darkness resulted in their ascent into the sky, one becoming the sun and the other the moon.  This legendary game of the hero twins may have been reenacted on the ball courts of the Classic Maya period by Maya kings dressed as ballplayers. 

20. Mayan Hero Twins In the final act of the game, the winners sacrificed their royal opponents, who had been taken captive in battle in preparation for the staging of the event, thus reinforcing the power of the victorious rulers. Among the Maya the court seems to have been viewed as the entrance to the underworld; the opening in the earth where the hero twins descended to Xibalba, god of underworld, to challenge the gods on the ball court. http://mayas.mrdonn.org/herotwins.html

21. Watch a Ballgame Test your Knowledge: http://www.ballgame.org/sub_section.asp?section=3&sub_section=2