All
Mayan cities had ball courts. The court at Chichen Itza is well preserved. The Maya played a game here which was also a religious ceremony. Most ball courts had two
sloping parallel walls inset with three round disks called markers
or a single stone ring, at right angles to the ground. Each team
attempted to throw a hard rubber ball (from a local rubber source)
through a ring in the wall or touch the markers. The players were supposed to keep the
ball in play using everything but their hands.
The markers or rings were positioned 20 feet above the ground,
and the players could only touch the ball with their elbows, knees
or hips. Scoring was difficult and usually ended the game.
The
players reenacted the Mayan
Creation Myth. The Hero Twins defeated the gods of
the underworld in the ball game and returned to life after being
sacrificed. One became the sun and the other Venus, and in their
daily rising and setting reenact their descent into the underworld
and their subsequent rebirth.
In the later periods, human sacrifice was involved; the captain of the losing team was decapitated as part of the acting out of the myth. |
