World's Oldest Team Sport: the Mesoamerican Ball Game
Posted: Sunday, November 13, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
The first organized team sport in human history has been played for over 3,500 years in Mesoamerica. An game using a rubber ball and teams was developed by the Olmec culture of the lowland Gulf Coast of Mexico by 1,500 BCE. Forms of the game were played by the succeeding Mesoamerican cultures up to the times of the European conquest. At that time, the game was called Ullamaliztli, which means "playing of a game with a rubber ball" in Nahuatl, an Aztec language. A form of the game, Ulama, is still played today by indigenous peoples in Mexico making it the oldest continuously played team sport in the world. It is also the first sport to use a rubber ball.
The earliest known rubber balls have been found in a sacrificial bog at El Manati in Veracruz. A dozen balls ranging in size from 10 to 22 cm in diameter have been recovered by archaeologists. At least five of them have been dated to the earliest know period of occupation at the site, 1700 to 1600 BCE. The balls were found with other ritual offerings which indicates that the Ball Game had already acquired religious and ritualistic connotations. A stone "yoke" of a type often associated with other ancient ball playing courts across Mexico was found in the bog as well, suggesting that the rubber balls found were associated with the Ball Game and were not just independent offerings.
Another place the Ball Game could have originated is the Soconusco lowlands on the Pacific Coast in southern the Mexican state of Chiapas; across the issumus from the Olmec Homelands. In 1995, at Pas de la Amada, an archeological dig site in Chiapas, the oldest ball court ever found was uncovered. It is dated to approximately 1400 BCE. It measures 262 feet long and 26 feet wide. It is situated between two parallel mounds with benches that are a foot tall and about 8 feet deep that run along the mounds. The configuration is similar to all of the more recent ball courts found. It was not, as the ball courts usually are, located in a ceremonial center but was located in a high-status residential area, suggesting it was reserved for elite members of society.
Excavations at the Olmec Homelands site of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan have uncovered ballplayer figurines. These ‘sports hero' statuettes have been radiocarbon-dated to as far back as 1250 BCE. A ball court constructed during a much later period (600 BCE) has also been uncovered there. From the lowland, costal sites the Ball Game apparently spread to the inland population centers. Ballplayer figurines were found interred during burials at Tlatilco and Tlapacoya in the Valley of Mexico dating back to 1000 BCE. Ballplayer figurines from the same period have been found in the state of Guerrero, south west of the Valley of Mexico.
By 300 BCE there is evidence that the Ball Game was being played across all of Mesoamerica. Ball courts have been found in the Central Chiapas Valley, in the Valley of Oaxaca and in western Mexico. This time period in Mesoamerican history is called the Olmec Interregnum. It is the five hundred year period between the collapse of the Olmec culture and the rise of the Maya. The major cultural centers of Mesoamerica had temporarily shifted from the eastern lowlands to the plateaus and inland valleys. But, the game persisted. In the Classic Mayan language it is called pitz. Later, the Spanish conquerors called it, simply, juego de pelota; "ball game."
As should be expected with a sport played over such a long time period by various cultures, there are descriptions of various versions of the game. Researchers confess that we will never know all the details of the game and its rules. They believe the hip-ball version, which is played today, is probably the only version that was played in the ancient masonry ball courts. However, there is substantial archeological evidence that in some versions of the game the ball was hit with a wooden stick, similar to modern field hockey. In other versions the ball was hit with racquets, bats and batons, hand stones and the forearm. From ancient depictions of ball playing it is clear that the various versions of the game had their own size ball, specialized gear, playing field and rules.
In all versions of the Ball Game there were two teams. The number of players varied between two and four. The games were sometimes played on makeshift courts for recreation. Other times the games were huge spectacles on large stone courts that lead to human sacrifice. Ball games were brutal contests. Serious injuries were inflicted by the solid, heavy rubber ball. 500 years ago, Spanish chronicler, Diego Duran, reported that some bruises were so severe that they had to be lanced. He said that players were sometimes killed when the ball "hit them in the mouth or the stomach or the intestines."
With no way to know the rules of the ancient Ball Game, hints must be gleaned from more modern versions. Contemporary Ulama is somewhat like volleyball with no net. Teams are confined to one half of the court. The ball is hit back and forth using only the hips until one teams fails to return it or the ball goes "out of bounds."
In Postclassical times (after 1000 CE), the Maya placed vertical stone rings on each side of the court. An objective was to hit the ball through one of the rings. This new innovation carried on in the Toltec and Aztec versions of the Ball Game. In Aztec games that the Spanish witnessed, points were lost when a player let the ball bounce more than twice before returning it to the other team. Points were also lost for allowing the ball to go outside of the court boundaries, or when there was a failed attempt to put the ball through one of the stone rings that were placed along the center line of the court.
Spanish Monk Motolinia, who was a chronicler of the Aztec culture, said that points were gained if the ball hit the opposite end wall. A decisive victory was won by the team that put the ball through one of the stone rings. That was a rare event, however. The rings at the excavated court at Chichen Itza, for example, were set six meters (almost 20 feet), above the playing court. All of the games Motolina recounted were won by points.
No Ball Game "uniforms" or personal equipment has survived. Pre-Columbian paintings, drawings, stone reliefs and figurines of ball players do exist. Depictions of garb and protective equipment vary greatly. The basic hip-game outfit consists of a loincloth augmented with leather hip guards. The earliest figurines from the Olmec and Valley of Mexico sites are clad the same. It is also the only clothing worn by the modern ulama players, 3,500 years later. Some paintings depict players in capes and masks; others show stick-ball players wearing shirts.
Depictions of protective equipment also vary. Many times a thick girdle of wicker or wood covered in fabric or leather is shown. Some players are shown wearing chest protectors called palmas, which were inserted into a yoke and stood upright in front of the chest. Kneepads are seen on players from many areas and eras. They are worn by modern ulama players, as well. Gloves are worn by players in reliefs from 500 BCE and are also seen on drawings of Aztec players 2,000 years later. Helmets with elaborate headdresses are common in depictions, especially from the Mayan period. Mayan players are often shown wearing a pad on only the right knee and a wrapped right forearm.
Several dozen playing balls have been found, but it is uncertain what the actual sizes and weights used in the Ball Game were. There is no way to know if the ones found were actual playing balls, or religious offerings. Considering modern playing balls, the ancient balls recovered and other archeological evidence it is "guessed" that the ancient hip-ball was made of solid rubber, was about 8 inches in diameter (about the size of a volley ball), and weighed between 6 ½ and 9 pounds (15 times heavier than a volley ball). In the stick-ball game, it is speculated to have been a little larger and heaver than a modern day baseball. Some Mayan paintings and reliefs show a huge ball that is a meter or more across. They are thought to be exaggerated symbols, though, because the players are also wearing impossibly large headdresses.
Over 1,300 Mesoamerican ball courts have been discovered. The game was usually played in an masonry structure of a form that changed very little over the 2,700 year period the sites cover. There is a large variation in size, but the courts are generally the same shape. There is a long, narrow playing alley flanked by walls with both horizontal and sloping surfaces (in a few cases, vertical sides). The walls were often plastered and brightly painted. The earliest ball courts were open ended, but later ones had closed "end-zones," giving the structure an "I" shape. The length to width ratio of the courts relatively constant at 4 to 1, but there is a tremendous difference in overall size. The largest ball court is 96.5 meters long and 30 meters wide, while the smallest is only 16.5 meters by 5 meters.
Though ball courts are found in most sizable Mesoamerican ruins they are not evenly distributed across the geography, or across time. During the Late Classic Period (100 to 1000 CE), in Veracruz, the population seemed to be obsessed with the Ball Game, between the El Tajin and Cantona sites, 42 ball courts have been found. The northern Maya Lowlands and northern Chiapas have very few. In Teotihuacan, in the Valley of Mexico, the largest city in the pre-Columbian world which had an estimated 200,000 inhabitants at its peak, there are, conspicuously, no ball courts at all, though Ball Game ‘iconography' has been found there. Dozens of other cities across the area and across the millennia have impressive ball courts. Some are in very good condition showing care and preservation.
Ball courts were like modern day stadiums and were used for various activities besides the Ball Game. Whistles, drums and other instruments have been found at sites, suggesting musical performances or "cheerleading." Cultural events and ritual activities were most likely carried out there. Some ceramics from western Mexico shows what looks like wrestling matches taking place in a ball court.
The Ball Game was deeply engrained in Mesoamerican cultures and became a ritual that served purposes other than being a mere sporting event. Spanish missionary and historian Fray Juan de Torquemada tells of an Aztec emperor who played against a rival leader, wagering his annual income. An Aztec told Torquemada of a Toltec king who played against three rivals, the winner was to become ultimate ruler. There are many other examples of the Ball Game being used to settle or defuse conflicts without resorting to warfare. They held a Ball Game instead of a battle. Over time the practice expanded to include settling local conflicts within the society or city itself.
Mayan mythology suggests that the Ball Game was seen as a reinactment of the epic battle between the Lords of the Underworld and the Hero Twins. Briefly: with their ball playing, the Twins disturbed the Gods One Death and Seven Death. Consequently the gods brought death and pestilance into the world. The Twins were challanged by the Gods, descended to the Underworld and through tricks were able to resurect themselves and kill one of the death gods. The shape of ball courts suggest they are cosmological designs and represent the mythical entrance to the Underworld. However, the Ball Game and courts precede the Mayan myth by many centuries.
Human sacrifice is often associated with the Ball Game. It too appears to be a later development. There is no evidence of the practice during the Game's first 1,500 years. Not until the Classic Era (200-1000 CE), was human sacrifice included in the ceremonies. Then, it was almost exclusively practiced by the Maya and the later Veracruz culture. It is thought that in many cases, Mayan captives were sacraficed after a ritualistic Ball Game rather than an actual competition, which may tie in with the Twin Hero myth.
When and where the ancient Mesoamerican Ball Game started will never be known for sure. Its persistance for thousands of years through several cultures and many changes in meaning and importance is unique. There are many parallels with sports today: individually portrayed figurines suggest sports heros; nearly every major town had a ‘stadium;' musical activities were performed at the stadiums, perhaps at halftime; Spanish writers report that many Aztecs lost much of their personal posessions wagering on games.
Sources for this article are:
Hunt, Norman Bancroft. Historical Atlas of Ancient America. Thalamus Publishing, 2001
Wikipedia.com. Mesoamerican Ballgame section and links
www.Ballgame.org
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)The claim that any form of the mesoamerican ball game is the world's oldest team sport is completely wrong. Both Polo and Tug-of-War pre-date it by at least 4,500 years.Thanks for reading and commenting. Send the sources, please. I'll update the article.
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