Mesoamerican ballgame
Sign in to saveAlso known as renzu, reva, pok-ta-pok, pok-a-tok, pitz, ōllamaliztli
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Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- type of sport
- Subclass of
- ball game
- Location
- Mesoamerica
- Image
- Western Mexican tomb culture tableau (Tom Aleto).jpg
Show 4 more facts
- inception
- 1400-00-00
- Commons category
- Mesoamerican ballgame
- Commons gallery
- Mesoamerican ballgame
Sources (1)
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Encyclopedic overview
The ball in front of the goal during a game of pok-ta-pok, 2006 The Mesoamerican ballgame (Classical Nahuatl: ōllamalīztli, Nahuatl pronunciation: [oːlːamaˈlist͡ɬi], Epigraphic Mayan: pitz; Spanish: Juego de pelota mesoamericano) was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BCE (the middle Mesoamerican Preclassic period of the pre-Columbian era) by the people of Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modernized version of the game, ulama, is still played by the indigenous peoples of Mexico in some places.
The rules of the game are not known, but judging from its descendant, ulama, they were probably similar to racquetball, where the aim is to keep the ball in play. The stone ballcourt goals are a late addition to the game.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mesoamerican ballgame” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.