1. Teotihuacan

2. Mesoamerican Ballgame
“Game of Life and Death”

3. The Mesoamerican Ballgame
In Mexico, which was the heartland of the ancient ballgame tradition, well over 600 stone ballcourts have been found
Both a competitive contest and a ritual ceremony, the game held religious as well as secular significance for players and spectators. 
Called tlachtli by the Aztecs, game played with hard rubber ball.
Spanish document stone rings as goals, but those dating before 700 A.D. do not have them.

4. Ballcourts
These courts averaged 120 by 30 feet, though some were small enough to contain only two players at a time and a few others were as large as a modern football field.
Typically I-shaped courts, balls weighing up to 5 pounds.
ball had to be kept in motion
could not be hit with hands or feet in some versions
associated with fertility, death, militarism and sacrifice.
sacrifice of defeated team members documented in late accounts.

5. Ballcourt

6. Ballgame in Codices

7. Playing the Game
On each side of a playing alley were two long parallel walls against which a rubber ball was resounded and bounced from team to team.
Points were scored when opposing ball players missed a shot at the vertical hoops placed at the center point of the side walls, were unable to return the ball to the opposing team before it had bounced a second time, or allowed the ball to bounce outside the boundaries of the court.

8. Playing the Game (con’d)
The ball itself was of solid rubber and weighed around 6 pounds; injuries or even death could occur from its impact on vital parts of the body.
A number of ways of playing the game are known; one used a bat, another used a paddle or padded hands to hit the ball and still another allowed the ball to be kicked with the feet. 
However, in the dominant and best known form of the game, the ball could only be struck with the hips, buttocks, knees, or elbows. It drew many spectators and almost always involved heavy gambling.

9. Equipment
During the playing of the Mesoamerican ballgame, athletes wore special equipment to protect them from injury and to help deflect and hit the ball. 
Equipment needs varied somewhat over time but most commonly headresses or helmets protected the head, quilted cotton pads covered the elbows and knees and heavy belts or yokes, probably of leather or basketry, were worn around the waist. 
These yokes, however, and special items known as Palmas, Hachas and Manoplas were also made in heavy stone and are clearly associated with the ancient ballgame. 

10. Equipment (con’d)
Manoplas, or handstones, would have been useful in hitting the ball or protecting a participants hand as he fell to the floor of the court in play. 
Palmas and hachas, however, seemto have have little purpose in the game. 
The palmas, shown worn at the front of the yoke, are too fragile to have survived the rigorous play. 
The hachas, which dangle from the belt or yoke, at first glance also seem useless adornments. 

11. Players http://www.newarkmuseum.org/ballgame/
Monument With Decapitated Ballplayer, Early Postclassic Period, Veracruz, c. A.D
Ballplayer Wearing Deer Headdress, Late Classic Period, Maya, A.D

12. Stakes of the Game
At the end of the ritual competition the captain of the defeated team actually lost his head (although some scholars argue it was the winner who was sacrificed). 
In illustrations from Precolumbian books such as the Codex Borgia and on carved stone friezes decorating the parallel walls of magnificent ballcourts at the sites of Chichen Itza and El Tajin, the decapitation of one team captain by the other, or by a priest, is clearly depicted.

13. Role of the Game
The Mesoamerican ballgame had its origin in the the cosmic view and religious beliefs of the prehispanic peoples. 
The most common interpretation sees the ball and its movement in the court as the movement of heavenly bodies in the sky. 
The game is viewed as a battle between the sun, and its life giving principle of light, against the moon and stars who represent the principle of darkness. The opposing forces of day and night, dark and light, good and evil, life and death are symbolically acted out on the ballcourt.  
Clearly associated with this view of the game is the cult of fertility, the enduring need of agricultural peoples for the productivity of the earth which depends on the lifegiving warmth and light of the sun.
Human sacrifice by decapitation is a recurring theme associated with ballcourts and ballgame imagery. The streams of blood that spurt from the decapitated victim may be seen as fertilizing the earth or perhaps as an offering of sustenance to the sun in its battle against the forces of night.

14. Mayan Hero Twins
In the Maya region this cosmic battle is seen in the creation myth of twin brothers who play a ballgame in the underworld against the gods of death and pestilence. 
heir victory against the forces of darkness resulted in their ascension into the sky, one becoming the sun and the other the moon. 
This legendary game of the hero twins may have been reenacted on the ballcourts of the Classic Maya period by Maya kings dressed as ballplayers. 
In the final act of the game, the winners sacrificed their royal opponents, who had been taken captive in battle in preperation for the staging of the event, thus reinforcing the power of the victorious rulers.
Among the Maya the court seems to have been viewed as the entrance to the underworld; the opening in the earth where the hero twins descended to Xibalba to challenge the gods on the ballcourt.

15. Watch a Ballgame