The existence of the ball game in ancient mesoamerican civilizations served as an integral part of their culture that had physical, symbolic, and political influences. This widespread tradition was invented sometime in the preclassical period from 2500-100 BCE and does not originate with any one group (Cartwright 2013). Archaeologists have discovered over 1500 ball courts in Mesoamerica and have gathered knowledge about past iterations of the game through the surviving courts, game artifacts, and imagery depictions (Earley 2017). Variations of the game with different rules appeared across different cultures and time periods. Most consistently feature courts near sacred ceremonial centers such as temples and funerary shrines, suggesting significance beyond just sport. Most iterations of the game involve players aiming to shoot a solid rubber ball made from native rubber-producing plants through an elevated ring attached to a stone wall without using their hands or feet. Surviving sculptures show players poised to use their hips to hit the ball and wearing many layers of protective padding around their midsection to protect against the heavy rubber (Earley 2017).

Image 1. Mesoamerican ball game wall and goal in Chichen Itza. Photograph by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sainchez.

The game carried a heavy symbolic meaning and was often used as a vessel for human sacrifice. The mesoamerican ball game originates in a mayan creation myth in which a pair of brothers are tricked into playing the game with the gods of Xibalba(the underworld) and are subsequently decapitated (Cartwright 2013). Painted ceramic artifacts depict kings re-enacting the mythological game dressed as gods. Often the captain or the entirety of the losing team would be sacrificed as offerings to the gods. Relief panels in the game court wall from Chichen Itza depict a kneeling loser whose decapitated head sprouts vegetation and serpents (Cartwright 2013). This imagery signifies the believed nourishing and regenerative effects that sacrificial blood would bring. The mythological associations to the underworld are a representation of the battle between both day and night and life and death. The ball in constant motion is a representation of the sun’s movement across the sky and its passage through the hoop, representing the underworld, signifies the suns rising at the next dawn (Cartwright 2013). Victors of the games were regarded as warriors and would be rewarded with stone trophies. These consisted of hacha which were representations of human heads with handles and palma which were trophies designed to be worn on the costumes of players (Cartwright 2013). Stone versions of these artifacts were often placed in graves, showing the believed importance of these objects that needed to be carried on as belongings into the next life.

Image 2. Figurine of ancient ball player wearing protective padded belt. Photograph by Salazar Chávez.

The ball game aided in the political development of emerging mesoamerican societies. A social game could strengthen alliances between regions and ramp up trade. Emerging political leaders could flaunt their wealth through the ceremonious event and subsequent feasts. Social hierarchies could be implemented through socially ranked courtside viewing (Wade 2020). The games not only fostered a sense of community but expressed the power of political and religious leaders looking to establish a new inequality.

References

Cartwright, Mark. “The Ball Game of Mesoamerica.” World History Encyclopedia, September 16, 2013.

Earley, Caitlin. “The Mesoamerican Ballgame.” The Met, June 2017.

Further Readings

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mesoamerican-ball-game-might-be-mountains-not-coast-180974422/

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aay6964