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A ballcourt at Tikal, in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands. Maya Ballgame originated more than 3,000 years ago. [1] The Popol Vuh describes the history of the K'iche' people and their rulers and mentions the important position of the Maya ballgame. Through this ball game, a conflict of the forces of darkness and light is described ...
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.
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human sacrificial offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized offering, and such a sacrifice involved the decapitation of the captive ruler in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the Maya death gods. [1]
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.
Ceramic sculpture from a Western Mexican tomb showing players engaged in the Mesoamerican ballgame. A Mesoamerican ballcourt (Nahuatl languages: tlachtli) is a large masonry structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for more than 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame, particularly the hip-ball version of the ballgame. [1]
Xibalba (Mayan pronunciation: [ʃiɓalˈɓa]), roughly translated as "place of fright", [1] is the name of the underworld (in K'iche': Mitnal) in Maya mythology, ruled by the Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. [2]
In this way they divide the single life-death process of cyclical transformation into its two phases: one leading from birth to death, the other from death to birth. [9] Xolotl was the patron of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Some scholars argue the ballgame symbolizes the Sun's perilous and uncertain nighttime journey through the underworld. [9]