Ancient ballcourt in Mexico shows sport much older than thought

Ceramic figures of athletes were found in the Mexican highlands near a ballcourt that researchers say demands revisions to the suspected origins of the sport. Photo by Jeffrey Blomster & Victor E. Salazar Chavez/George Washington University

March 16 (UPI) -- New evidence shows that a ball sport was played in Mexico's highlands in 1374 B.C., earlier than previously thought, according to researchers.

A ballcourt found in Chiapas, Mexico, dates to 1650 B.C. and is the oldest found in the lowlands, but researchers from George Washington University found one in the Mexican highlands, in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca state, dating to 1374 B.C.

The finding suggests a reexamination of the origin of the sport is now required, write lead researchers Jeffrey P. Blomster and Victor E. Salazar Chavez in a study published this month in Science Advances.

A sport based on the movement of a ball is part of ancient Mesoamerican culture, with fields of play known as "ballcourts" found in the lowlands Mexico and Central America.

Until the discovery, it was assumed the game was refined in the lowlands before it became popular in mountainous areas of Mexico. A ball used in the game and commonly found by researchers is made of rubber from trees only grown in the Mexican lowlands.

At least 2,300 permanent ballcourts have been discovered by archeologists, many surrounded by statues indicating the sport's importance in local culture. While variants of the game have been found across Mesoamerica, the field of play typically involves two parallel walls and a ball, which is hit with players' hips and not hands.

It is significant that space in communities was reserved for playing the game, researchers say. The ballcourts are generally a part of the local architecture and designed with attention to accuracy.

Until now, archeologists believed that the game only entered the highlands after the lowlands populations essentially refined and popularized the game. The new research also reinforces the assumption that the ballcourts were used not only for sport but as a focus for community politics and rituals.

Ancient ballcourt in Mexico suggests game was played in the highlands earlier than thought

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Etlatongo ballplayer figurine. One of numerous ceramic ballplayers from the termination event, front view shows a thick belt or yoke with a loincloth project from it, while the profile view illustrates broken tripod support at bottom, which allowed the figurine to stand, and whistle chamber above it. Credit: Blomster and Salazar Chávez, Sci. Adv. 2020; 6 : eaay6964

A pair of researchers with George Washington University has found evidence of an ancient ball game played much earlier than previously thought in the Mesoamerican highlands. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Jeffrey Blomster and Víctor Salazar Chávez describe the ball court they found and what it means for one of the iconic features of Mesoamerican civilization.

Anthropologists have known for many years that people living in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago played a type of ball game on specially built ball courts. Approximately 2,300 ball courts have been identified to date across a wide swath of what is now Central America and parts of Mexico—some evidence even suggests both Maya and Aztec people played the game. Until now, though, the oldest ball courts found in the highlands suggested play came to such areas long after the game had already evolved to a mature state in the lowlands. In this new effort, the researchers have found a ball court in the highlands that was built much earlier than any other found to date in the highlands, suggesting it was played there much earlier than thought.

The researchers discovered the ball court in the mountains of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. And the researches have dated it back to approximately 3,400 years ago. Its finding challenges widespread beliefs that the ball game was played exclusively in the lowlands during its formative years. As further evidence of the lowlands as the origin of the sport, the rubber used to make the balls came from Castilla elastica—a species of tree that grows only in the lowlands. The oldest ball court in the lowlands is located in Chiapas, another Mexican state in southern Mexico—it has been dated to approximately 1,560 BC.

The newly discovered ball court was uncovered at the Etlatongo dig site in Oaxaca, where the researchers also uncovered ceramic figurines from the same time period depicting ball players in action. The ball court was found situated beneath another ball court. Early players had evidently retired the earlier court and had covered it over with a new one.

The researchers suggest that the history of the sport will have to be reexamined, noting that it now appears likely that the game evolved with influences from both highlanders and lowlanders. They say more work is required to find additional older ball courts in the highlands.Ancient Aztec temple, ball court found in Mexico City

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More information: Jeffrey P. Blomster et al. Origins of the Mesoamerican ballgame: Earliest ballcourt from the highlands found at Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay6964