Did the Mayans play a ballgame?
The ballgame played by the Maya, Aztec and neighboring cultures is famous for its ubiquity in Mesoamerica before interloping Europeans shut it down. But many mysteries and misconceptions continue to dog people's understanding of the game. For instance, did the game's winners or losers get sacrificed at the end of the game?
How did the Mayans use the game of dice?
The Maya used the game as a stand ‐ in for warfare, settling territory disputes and hereditary issues, and to foretell the future. Captives of wars were forced to play (undoubtedly rigged) games that resulted in their sacrifice when they lost. Sacrificed ball player in the Anthropolgy Museum of Xalapa, Mexico (photograph by Maurice Marcellin)
What did the Aztecs do with the losers?
The Aztecs continued this proud tradition of loser ‐ lose ‐ all, as many vases and sculptures depict the inevitable decapitation of the losing team. There are even some depictions of ball players playing with the heads of the losers in place of a ball. Whether this actually occurred is up to artistic speculation.
What was the purpose of the Mayan ball court?
Humans and the lords of the underworld battled it out by playing the game, according to the creation story the known as the Popol Vuh. In this way, the ball court was a portal to Xibalba — the Mayan underworld. The Maya used the game as a stand ‐ in for warfare, settling territory disputes and hereditary issues, and to foretell the future.
What happens if you lost the Mayan ball game?
The penalty for losing a game was sometimes unusually harsh: death. The leader of the team who lost the game was sometimes killed. This fit in with the Mayan belief that human sacrifice was necessary for the continued success of the peoples' agriculture, trade, and overall health.
What happened to the losers in Pok-A-Tok?
Pok-A-Tok was often played by prisoners of war, and the members of the losing team were offered as sacrificed to the gods. Pok-A-Tok games would go on without interruption for long periods of time, often for days.
What happened to the winners and losers of Pok-A-Tok?
The winners or losers of the ballgame were sacrificed. Neither the winners nor losers were sacrificed during the Maya ballgame, with the exception of a game that took place instead of going to war against a city.
Do people still play Mayan ball game?
The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a newer, more modern version of the game, ulama, is still played by the indigenous populations in some places.
Who was sacrificed in Pok A Tok?
Although it was played by people from all levels of Maya society for fun, Pok-A-Tok was also used as a way to settle conflicts between warring groups and noblemen. What's more, recovered sources indicate that the losing side's leader (and perhaps the whole team) was sometimes killed and sacrificed to the gods.
How long did the Mayan ball game last?
2 weeksThe game was played for 2 weeks. A rubber ball was always used. Its size and weight varied over the centuries.
Who invented Pok-A-Tok?
The Maya were the only people to live in these places until the Spanish conquerors arrived in the 1520s. The Ball Game, called pok-a-tok, was sacred to the Maya. It was an extension of their religion, and involved a great deal of ceremony. The game may have been a reenactment of the Maya myth of the Hero Twins.
What language did the Mayans speak?
Yucatec language, also called Maya or Yucatec Maya, American Indian language of the Mayan family, spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, including not only part of Mexico but also Belize and northern Guatemala.
How did the Mesoamerican ballgame players hit the ball?
Players wore helmets, pads and thick protective yokes around their mid‐section and kept the ball in play by hitting it off their hips. The Mesoamerican ball game makes its first appearance among the Olmec around 1500 BC in the central Gulf Coast of Mexico, an area known at the time for latex production.
How many Maya people are living today?
about six million peopleThe Maya today number about six million people, making them the largest single block of indigenous peoples north of Peru. Some of the largest Maya groups are found in Mexico, the most important of these being the Yucatecs (300,000), the Tzotzil (120,000) and the Tzeltal (80,000).
What did the Mayan ball players wear heavy padding to protect themselves from?
These balls could cause serious injury and sometimes even death if not handled correctly during the game. Players would sometimes wear padding, called Yokes, to protect their limbs from injury.
How did the Mayan civilization end?
Scholars have suggested a number of potential reasons for the downfall of Maya civilization in the southern lowlands, including overpopulation, environmental degradation, warfare, shifting trade routes and extended drought. It's likely that a complex combination of factors was behind the collapse.
What is the Mayan ball game called?
The ancient Maya ballgame called pitz was part of Maya political, religious, and social life. Played with a rubber ball ranging in size from that of a softball to a soccer ball, players would attempt to bounce the ball without using their hands through stone hoops attached to the sides of the ball court.
What is the significance of the Mayan ball game?
Some Mayan ball games were played to resolve bitter disputes between rival cities or as a proxy for war. The Maya also saw the game as a battle between the gods of death and the gods of life or between good and evil. They also saw it as a reminder of the Hero Twins, who overcame death and became demi-gods themselves.
When was the Mayan ball game played?
The game was invented sometime in the Preclassical Period (2500-100 BCE), probably by the Olmec, and became a common Mesoamerican-wide feature of the urban landscape by the Classical Period (300-900 CE). Eventually, the game was even exported to other cultures in North America and the Caribbean.
How many players Pok A Tok?
Two teams with approximately 5 players each. The ball is hit into the field of play and players can pass the ball to each other using only their elbows, knees and hips. Hands, heads and feet are not allowed.
What does the Mayan game symbolize?
They also saw it as a reminder of the Hero Twins, who overcame death and became demi-gods themselves. Thus, the game symbolizes regeneration and life.
How many players hit the ball in the Aztec games?
While no one knows the exact rules of the ball game, Spaniards who saw the Aztec games in the 1500s reported that two teams of two to five players had to keep the ball in the air without using their hands or feet. They hit the ball with their upper arms, thighs or hips.
How long has the ball game been around?
The ball game goes back 3,500 years, making it the first organized game in the history of sports. Mayans loved the game and everyone played at various times, but it also held deep religious, ritual meaning as well. For that reason, it was sometimes played just as a game, with lots of gambling on the teams.
How many ball courts are there in Mesoamerica?
Thirteen hundred ball courts are scattered throughout Mesoamerica and all of them have the same I shape, that is, two sloping walls for the ball to bounce on, a long narrow playing field and two end zones. Guatemala, home of the earliest Mayan cities, holds over 500 ball courts alone.
What is the significance of getting a ball through a hole?
Besides games just for fun and athletics, ceremonial games carried a great deal of religious significance, ac ting out the creation myth, or keeping the sun and moon in their accustomed orbits.
How heavy were rubber balls?
Solid rubber balls were heavy—up to eight or nine pounds —and could cause serious injury or even death. Games were won mostly by points. Around A.D. 1200, stone circles with a hole in the middle were attached high up on the walls of the ball court, up to six meters high.
Why did Mexico and Belize play each other in the Ulama?
In order to commemorate and honor Mexican heritage, teams from Mexico and Belize compete d against each other in a three millennia-old game known as Ulama.
What was the deadly sport of the ancient Americas?
Ulama: The Deadly Sport of the Ancient Americas. As Bryan Hill reports in a previous Ancient Origins article , this athletic event was not just a game for the ancient peoples, but a major part of Mesoamerican culture played by the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec civilizations. According to ancient texts Ulama was viewed as a battle between ...
What does the ball of the sun represent?
Additionally, the motion of the ball symbolized the rotation of the sun for the Aztez, Olmeca and Mayan people.
How many players are in the Ulama game?
The game is played by teams of seven players, who try to pound a heavy solid rubber ball up and down an arrow pitch, using their hips. Modern Ulama could be described as an equivalent sport to soccer but with the main difference being that the players are only allowed to use their hips instead of their feet. When one team fails to keep the ball within the playing field then the opposing team earns a point.
Where did the ball player disc come from?
Ball player disc from Chinkultic, Chiapas ( CC By 2.0 ) To the Mayans, the game was known as Pok a Tok, to the Aztec it was Tlachtli, while nowadays most people refer to it as Ulama. Believed to have extended as far south as Paraguay and north into present day Arizona, the earliest known Mesoamerican ball court is Paso de la Amada in Mexico, ...
What is the difference between soccer and ulama?
Modern Ulama could be described as an equivalent sport to soccer but with the main difference being that the players are only allowed to use their hips instead of their feet. When one team fails to keep the ball within the playing field then the opposing team earns a point.
Where is the Sacrificed Ball Player?
Sacrificed ball player in the Anthropolgy Museum of Xalapa, Mexico (photograph by Maurice Marcellin) Two ball players on a carving in Guatemala (photograph by Simon Burchell) The Aztecs continued this proud tradition of loser ‐ lose ‐ all, as many vases and sculptures depict the inevitable decapitation of the losing team.
What was the game the Olmecs played?
The game the Olmecs played was associated with prestige and social standing, and only the wealthy and therefore upper class could afford to put on a game. The giant stone heads found in the region also depict chiefs wearing the ball playing helmet. Related.
What was the ball court used for?
The Maya used the game as a stand ‐ in for warfare, settling territory disputes and hereditary issues, and to foretell the future. Captives of wars were forced to play (undoubtedly rigged) games that resulted in their sacrifice when they lost.
