Ancient Inventions

The Mexican Ball Game

A Mexican ball-game layer of the 1st millennium B.C.? These massive Olmec culture heads are often shown with a helmet, leading to suggestions that they may have been tie first civilization in the Americas to play the sacred ball game.

The most extraordinary sport of the ancient world wasthe sacred ball game of Central America and the southern United States. It was first played in about 1000 B.C. by the Olmecs, who lived along the Bay of Mexico, and by all the later great civilizations of the region. From the very start it was played by the most important members of society. The colossal Olmec heads—carved from balsalt brought down from mountains fifty miles away and weighing up to forty-four tons—show Olmec rulers wearing head coverings. A plausible explanation is that these are the protective helmets (like those of modern football players) worn by the Olmecs when playing their sacred ball game.

The earliest ball courts were simple basins with earthen retaining walls, but by A.D. 1000 they had become far more elaborate. At Chichén Itzá the parallel walls were 283 feet long, 100 feet apart and 27 feet height. In Aztec times ball courts were shaped like a capital "I", with temples at both ends and banks of seating along the sides. In the middle of the walls, which were usually twelve feet high, were tset stone or wooden rings. The ball was a solid rubber sphere about six inches in diameter. To protect themselves against injuries from the heavy ball, the noble players (and a sprinkling of professionals) wore protective helmets, wide belts of hard wood and leather, hip pads, knee pads and a single glove.

Details form the 15th century Codex Magliabecciano, showing the Mexican ball game about to start. The rings, here shown outside the court, actually projected into it at right angles to the side walls.

After the ball was thrown into play, players had to pass it to their teammates using their hips, elbows, or legs, without letting it run into the other side's end of the court, for this counted as a point against them. The excited crowd would bet on the outcome: according to a Spanish chronicler they would wager "gold, turquoises, slaves, rich mantles, even cornfields and houses." Star players were able to hit the ball up through the ring on the side of the court, thereby winning the game.

The victorious side had the right to grab the clothes and jewelry of any spectators who couldn't get away fast enough. That the game also had a religous significance is shown by the fact that omens were read from the movement of the ball and the nature of the victory. That the losing team may have paid the ultimate price for defeat is suggested by the sculptural reliefs found next to many ball courts, which show a ball player being decapitated as a sacrifice to the gods.

Read about other ancient inventions that shaped history and paved the way for modern inventions.

Information Sources: Wonders of the Past! Ancient Inventions, Peter James and Nick Thorpe, Ballantine Books, NY, 1994, p. 560.