By Cici Nesbeth

10/26/15

Period 6

World cultures

The Mesoamerican Ballgame

  The Mayans played the first organised sport in the history of sports.The ballgame had some dangerous and exiting components. The game was about shooting a ball into a hoop. s. In the Mayan language the ballgame is called Ah Pitzlaw. The ball was used as a bouncy ball. They used heads as the center. The range was from the size of a softball to the size of a beach ball. The ball weighed about 8 pounds! The Mesoamericans wore 3 different style of clothes. Each outfit consist of a headdress, a jade necklace, a yoke, lion cloth, some knee and shin protection, and rubber shoes. The court was shaped like a capital I. It was built out of stone and had many different colors. The ball court symbolized a city’s wealth and power. They had a god called Xochipilli that was the patron of the game.

 The Mayans were very religious in everything they did, even sports The game was a ritual because if the Mayan team lost then the captain would be sacrificed or if the other team lost then there team captain would be  beheaded. The game was a big part of the Mayan creation story called the Popul Vuh. The ball was religious because they used human heads for the ball. The human heads represent the maze god and how his head was cut off. The uniform had hats and other things that represented the gods. The teams had mascots that were god. The court had many religious glyph’s  that represented many things. The court was for battle and also sacrifice.