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The mesoamerican ballgame, known as ullamaliztli or ollamalizitli in the native language Nahuatl, was played for many different reasons and by many different people. The game was played all over what is now Mexico. It was played by two different groups, the Aztecs and Mayans. There is a very extensive history of the ballgame. Ranging from how it was discovered to whom discovered it to different personal accounts. The people who played the game were Mayan and Aztec.
Some of the courts they found were in ceremonial centers. They know the game was very important because they were placed in the ceremonial centers. They also found other smaller courts. Since the game was played at different levels of skill, intensity, and religion, there had to be a wide variety of people playing. The ballgame was played by members of elite classes of society. They are the ones to whom the game was very important.
It was also played on the informal earthen courts. They also played for fun. The game was played by nearly all the males in the community. They started playing at adolescence and stopped when they got too old. The mesoamerican ballgame was played all across what is now Mexico. Archeological evidence suggests that it may have reached as far north as Arizona.
The earliest ball courts found are in south central Mexico. This leads archeologists to believe that this is where the ballgame originated. At first the ball courts in south central Mexico were scarce. Slowly, the ballgame started to spread farther north.
As this happened, the ball courts began to become more abundant until they reached what is now southern Arizona. When they reached this area, the ball courts started to become scarce again. After this point the ballgame didn t spread any further. The reason for the decline of the ball courts in the northernmost areas is because of Cortes and his missionaries. When Cortes came to Mexico in 1519 - 1520 he was the first European to see the game played.
Cortes loved this game so much, that when he returned to Spain he brought a Tlaxcalen ball team with him to perform in front of the royal court. When Cortes came back to Mexico he brought Spanish missionaries with him. The missionaries soon ordered the ball courts in the Nahuatl-speaking areas to be destroyed. They didn t like the ritual and religious significance of the game to the natives.
They figured that if the natives had strong religious beliefs, it would be harder to convert them to Christianity. There were really only two ways that we know how the ballgame was played. One is from Cortes and the first-hand account of others like him. The second is from the Mayan and Aztec pottery. Some vases that the Mayans and Aztecs made depict people playing the ballgame. They also had writing on them telling about how the ballgame was played.
There were several different styles of ball courts. The most common were shaped like a capital I while others had open ends. Some of the courts had rings on either side and some didn t. There were really only four different variations on the courts (1) open-ended courts (2) courts with only one end zone or with badly defined end zones. These courts were used for intermediates (3) enclosed courts shaped like a capital I with clearly defined end zones (4) rectangular playing courts that were well defined with no end zones and even height walls on ether side. Also in Arizona there were oval, earthen, and bowl-shaped courts.
The ball game was played with a heavy rubber ball about 6 - 12 inches in diameter that bounced very well. The ball could only be struck with a players hips, buttocks, or knees. You had to propel the ball past the centerline into the opponents end zone. You also had to prevent the ball from coming to a rest if were on your side of the court. Some courts had rings slightly larger than the ball mounted in the center of the wall on both left and right sides. If the ball was hit through one of these rings, the game was won by the scoring team.
It s a common misconception that the rings were mounted horizontally like basketball hoops. They re really mounted vertically. The game was played for a variety of reasons. Some of the more important people played it for religion and sometimes even for sacrifice, whereas the commoners just played for fun and sometimes gambled very heavily. The first-hand account of the Spanish Friar Duran tells much of what we know.
All those who entered this game, played with leather placed over their loin-cloths and they always wore some trousers of deerskin to protect the thighs which were scraping against the ground all the time. They wore gloves in order not to hurt their hands, as they were continuously were steadying and supporting themselves on the ground. Duran also talked about how, with a small knife they extracted blood that had gathered from bruises, which the blows of the ball had caused. As you can tell the ballgame was very popular for over 2000 years until the Spanish arrived.
The Mayan and Aztec people suffered greatly as a result of the loss of the ballgame. The ballgame was very important to the Aztecs and the Mayans because it was a large part of their religion. It was also a large part of their life. They didn t just play for sacrifice but also for fun.
You can only wonder what would have happened to their culture if the Spaniards hadn t forced themselves into the Mayan and Aztec life.
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