Aztec Rubber Ball Game

Ulama is a ball game played in mexico currently experiencing a revival from its home in a few communities in the state of sinaloa descended from the aztec version of the mesoamerican ballgame the game is one of the oldest continuously played sports in the world and is notable for the fact that it is the oldest known game using a rubber ball.

Aztec rubber ball game.

The aztec version of the ballgame is called ōllamalitzli sometimes spelled ullamaliztli and are derived from the word ōlli rubber and the verb ōllama or to play ball. The mesoamerican ball game was a game where the action reached unimaginable levels of violence even by today s standards. 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. The ball court was usually in the shape of an i although there were some variations around the court was a slope surrounded at the outer edge by walls about 8 11 feet high.

There were two ways to get points. Every town and village in the aztec empire had a ball court. Each team tried to get a rubber ball across the center line into their opponents side. ōllamaloni sometime before 1600 bce and used them in a variety of roles the mesoamerican ballgame for example employed various sizes of solid rubber balls and balls were burned as offerings in temples buried in votive deposits and laid in sacred bogs and cenotes.

But of course the biggest and best was in the capital city. Ancient mesoamericans were the first people to invent rubber balls nahuatl languages. Serious injury was common as players dove onto stone courts to keep a ball in play and would end the game bloodied and bruised. Losing the game hun hunahpús had his head cut off.

The ball itself was called ōllamaloni and the ballcourt was called a tlachtli ˈtɬatʃtɬi. In another legend a famous ball game was held at the aztec capital of tenochtitlan between the aztec king motecuhzoma xocoyotzin r. The aztec ball game had a distinctive court known as the tlachtli or tlachco. The team with the most points won.

Tarkanian and hosler mostly created sheets of rubber in the lab but they did make a few rubber balls during one session. Maya ballgame which is a branch of the mesoamerican ballgame is a sporting event that was played throughout the mesoamerican era by the maya civilization the maya civilization was spread out throughout much of central america. A foretaste of what would become common practice for players unfortunate enough to lose a game. 1502 1520 ce and the king of texcoco.