Sports are an integral part of modern society. Going far beyond entertainment, sports and sports teams, ranging from high school and local teams to national teams at the Olympics, are closely tied to group identity and feelings of belonging. It should come as no surprise, then, that some sports have their origins in acts of war. In ancient Mesoamerica, violent competition between rival groups was played out through what is now known as the Mesoamerican ballgame—and there was often far more than pride on the line for these athletes.
Ancient Mesoamerica’s Favorite Sport
The pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas are known for their incredibly vibrant cultural and ritual practices, evidenced through archeology. Those cultures in the region stretching from modern-day Mexico through Central America often shared aspects of religion and culture that extended to their sports—or rather, their sport, singular.
The Mesoamerican Ballgame, as it is now known, was first designated as the Aztec ballgame by the Spanish, who encountered it in the 16th century. It was later discovered that some version of this ballgame was played by almost every Mesoamerican society, with gameplay revolving around the use of a rubber ball. However, this sport was far more than a simple game.
All versions of the Mesoamerican ballgame centered on ritualistic concepts. Although the game itself varied significantly between societies, researchers believe that it likely was often a simulation of warfare in some respects. Scholars have proposed symbolic connections to mythological wars, agricultural fertility, the movement of the sun and moon, and the underworld.
One ritual aspect of the game is undeniable: human sacrifice. From art depicting decapitation on ball courts to detailed accounts in religious texts, the connection between the Mesoamerican ballgame and the act of ritual killing is abundantly clear.
Much of the present understanding of the ballgame and its significance comes from art. Carvings left on ball courts and ballplayer figurines reveal how the game was played, what players wore, and the importance of sport in Mesoamerican culture. From the clues these artists left behind, scholars have pieced together the origins of America’s first ballgame.
The Olmec Origins of the Mesoamerican Ballgame
The act of playing the ballgame has long been considered a cornerstone of Mesoamerican culture. Although it’s hard to determine precisely when this sport first appeared, it’s clear that societies in the lowland region of Mesoamerica have been playing it for at least 3,000 years. The Olmec civilization is often credited as the first to play a ballgame, with evidence of a temporary ballcourt setup dating back to approximately 1200 BCE.
The Olmec were known for their use of rubber—in fact, Olmeca is a Nahuatl word meaning “rubber people.” These were the first people to produce latex from rubber trees. For this reason and many more, the Olmec are known as the Mesoamerican “mother culture,” initiating many defining aspects of Mesoamerican culture, including the ballgame, a writing system, and a calendar.
Evidence for the Mesoamerican ballgame comes in three different forms. The first is ballgame paraphernalia, which can include the rubber balls used for gameplay or costume elements worn by players. Secondly, much of the evidence for the ballgame comes from imagery and artwork, including ballplayer figurines and public murals.
The remains of ballcourt architecture are by far the most important and compelling form of evidence. Ballcourts, which began as temporary structures, evolved into important architectural aspects of Mesoamerican cities. The oldest known ballcourt is located at the archeological site of Paso de la Amada in the lowlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Dated to circa 1650 BCE, the formal ballcourt would have been an important aspect of this ancient ceremonial center.
Rules & Gameplay
While almost all Mesoamerican cultures played some version of a ballgame, the rules varied significantly throughout time and space.
Ballplayer figurines and other imagery often show players hitting the rubber ball with their hips or, in some cases, wooden paddles. Hands and feet were not involved in gameplay, with the ball being manipulated mainly by the trunk of the body. What is clear is that the game was played in teams of two—often representing opposite forces within the context of politics or war.
Some have proposed that the objective of the game was to keep the ball in play. In other cases, points are thought to have been scored by hitting the ball through stone hoops on the sides of ballcourts or by hitting designated markers on the court itself.
The account given by Diego Duran—a Dominican friar who traveled with the Spanish and wrote a detailed chronicle of the Aztecs—makes the game sound an awful lot like modern-day soccer.
Duran describes the square corners of the ballcourt as goals defended by players to prevent the ball from passing. In the middle of the court, a line was drawn between the two hoops, marked out by a certain herb—basically serving as the midfield line.
In games using hoops, the game would end when a player successfully struck the ball through the hoop. The player who won the game this way was celebrated with special honors and rewards. However, this was apparently a rare occurrence, with the winning team typically being decided in other, lesser-known ways.
Because the solid rubber balls used for play were so heavy—up to 15 pounds, in some cases—players were required to wear protective padding. Regardless of their protective gear, it was physically grueling for the athletes. Diego Duran wrote that players were sometimes killed by the rubber ball and were often covered in nasty bruises.
A Game of Life & Death
The Mesoamerican ballgame was high-risk, high reward. Winning could earn a player riches and fame; losing could cost him his life.
Although archeologists have suggested that the sacrificial aspect of the ballgame did not come into play until the Classic Period of Mesoamerican culture (250–900 CE), there is evidence to suggest that it did become an integral aspect of the game. Some ballcourts even included skull racks on which to display the heads of the decapitated sacrifices after the game. Historical documents have suggested that the ball symbolized a human head—or even that the ball in question was a human head. The ballgame may have served as a reenactment of (or even a replacement for) battle, with the losers paying the ultimate price.
The role of human sacrifice in the ballgame has its roots in the story of the Popol Vuh, the Mayan sacred text. The Popol Vuh (“Book of Counsel”) tells the creation myth of the K’iche’ Maya—which involved the ballgame itself.
In the story, the protagonist “Hero Twins,” Hunahpu and Xbalanque, face off in the ballgame against the gods of the underworld. When they win, the Gods kill them in anger, but they are resurrected by the gods of the sky. The twins then bring their father, the murdered maize god Hun Hunahpu, back from the dead and escape the underworld together.
Anthropologists have suggested that the ballgame mimics the creation story within the Popol Vuh and is essentially ritualistic and symbolic in nature. Ballcourts may have been considered portals, bridging the gap between the physical and supernatural worlds, allowing kings and gods to interact and even play together. Sacrifices would have been made as offerings to the gods.
However, sacrifices were not always involved in the playing of the ballgame. Ritual killing may have been reserved for particular situations. For example, a team of successful conquerors would sometimes play a final game against hostages of a recently vanquished civilization in a sort of reenactment of the battle, killing the remaining prisoners of war at the game’s end.
Whatever its function, human sacrifice clearly had a significant and dramatic role to play in the Mesoamerican ballgame. This is best displayed in the ballcourt panels at El Tajín in Mexico, which include depictions of a ballplayer being sacrificed as the Death God watches eagerly.
America’s First Ball Courts
Just as with modern stadiums and sporting arenas, the courts that were home to the Mesoamerican ballgame were also spaces for social participation and celebration. Ballcourts were often part of a city’s central complex of buildings, serving as culturally significant public spheres. Prior to architectural ballcourts, the game was played in open fields and other public spaces with makeshift goals marked by various objects. Just as sports in the modern day are practiced at all levels, from pickup games in local parks to professional leagues, the Mesoamerican ballgame was played among everyday people and nobles alike.
Mesoamerican ballcourts were typically designed in an “I” shape: a narrow alley enclosed by two parallel end zones. Two vertical stone hoops on the walls of the court stood opposite each other in the center of the long alley. Gently sloping walls and benches along the alley figured into gameplay, with the balls being bounced off the sides. Long rectangular structures built along the alley likely served as viewing areas for the audience. The biggest known ballcourt at Chichén Itzá is over 300 feet long, making it nearly the size of a modern soccer field.
The Role of Sports in Mesoamerican Communities
Official ballcourts provided public spaces for social cohesion through the shared experience of spectator sport. The Mesoamerican ballgame was wrought with symbolism and cultural pride. Ceremony surrounded the event, with feasting and gambling taking place around the game. The ballgame may have contributed to the formation of community identity, hierarchical social structures, and government in early Mesoamerica.
Like modern-day sports, the Mesoamerican ballgame occupied an important position at the crossroads of competition, community, and ceremony. This tradition is maintained by indigenous communities in Mexico today—particularly in the state of Sinaloa—that play a modern version of the Mesoamerican hip-ball game known as Ulama.
