Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
One of the common links of the Mayan culture of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize is the game played with a rubber ball, about which we have learned from several sources. [1] The Maya ballgame was played with big stone courts. The ball court itself was a focal point of Maya cities and symbolized the city's wealth and power.
The ball in front of the goal during a game of pok-ta-pok, 2006. The Mesoamerican ballgame (Nahuatl languages: ōllamalīztli, Nahuatl pronunciation: [oːlːamaˈlistɬi], Mayan languages: pitz) was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC [1] by the pre-Columbian people of Ancient Mesoamerica.
People who died by suicide, sacrifice, complications of childbirth, perish in the ball game, [1] and in battle were thought to be transported directly into heaven. The reason a violent death led to one souls being able to immediately enter the Maya heaven is because the gods are thankful for their sacrifice to them.
Urns containing cremated remains of Mayan rulers discovered in the Temple of the Sun at Toniná, were found to also contain rubber, coal, and roots - materials that make up the rubber balls used in the mesoamerican ball game - leading archeologists to believe that the Mayans of this period in Toniná memorialized their rulers by incorporating ...
A solid rubber ball used (or similar to those used) in the Mesoamerican ballgame, 300 BCE to 250 CE, Kaminaljuyu. The ball is 3 inches (almost 8 cm) in diameter, a size that suggests it was used to play a handball game. Behind the ball is a manopla, or handstone, which was used to strike the ball, 900 BCE to 250 CE, also from Kaminaljuyu.
The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modern version of the game, ulama, is still played in a few places by the local indigenous population. The rules of the ballgame are not known, but judging from its descendant, ulama , they were probably similar to racquetball , where the aim is to keep the ball in ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Ulama de mazo or Ulamad de palo, in which a heavy (6–7 kg or 13–15 lb) two-handed wooden paddle strikes a 500g (1 lb) ball, usually in teams of three or four. [8] The object of the game is to keep the ball in play and in-bounds. Depending on the score and the local variant of the rules, the ball is played either high or low.