The American Ballgame, Part 3
The Ballgame in North America
The Olmec civilization, inventor of the ballgame, enters the archeological record around 1500 BC, and the oldest discovered Olmec earthen ball court was built just 100 years later. The word Olmec comes from the Aztec language and means ‘the rubber people,’ and their most recognizable art, sculpted colossal heads of rulers wearing ballgame helmets, resemble giant balls themselves. As described in the second part of this essay, the Olmecs and the Mayans used the game as a ritual reenactment of the human sacrifice that gave birth to the present age. Parallels may be made with the Christian rite of bread and wine. The religious and ritual significance of the ball game ceremony was at the center of these civilizations.
The rules and equipment of the game evolved and the game was carried to distant lands where its purpose may have evolved also. By the time Europeans arrived, the game was played or had been played in present day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the West Indies, and the US states of Arizona and New Mexico. In fact, more than 220 ball courts had been built in what is now the United States.
A civilization called the Hohokam moved from Mexico into Arizona around 300 BC. This was the very beginning of the Classic Period of the Maya. The first Hohokam ball court was built in what would become the United States around 700 BC, and they would go on to build more than 220 over the next 500 years.
The Hohokam brought with them two new technologies that enabled early people to live in permanent settlements. These were irrigation, to grow food, and pottery making, to store the food grown. A friend of mine in Arizona who has studied this archeology for several decades calls the ball court ruins ‘Anasazi-Mayan’.
Mayan Classic Period construction at Tikal in Guatemala, Copán in Honduras and Cerros in Belize included ball courts with no goal rings and low sloping side walls. Stone court markers are used. At Copán, there is a marker in the center and one at the end of each playing alley. The Hohokam ball courts likewise have stone markers and no goal rings. Goal rings did not appear on Mayan ball courts until the Terminal Classic Period. The famous Chichen Itza court, largest in the Mayan lands, was built between 900 and 1200 AD.
The most striking feature of the US Hohokam ball courts is their curved side walls. Some, like the well preserved court at Wupatki in Arizona, is elliptical in shape. When first excavated, some archeologists thought they had found ancient water reservoirs. Comparing the shape to Mayan ball courts, archeologist Dr. Emil Haury concluded that the different shape was no more than an accommodation to available building materials. Straight-walled Mayan courts are built of plastered stone. Stone is scarce in the desert, and the Hohokam courts with plastered earthen walls are more stable when curved. At least one Mayan ball court with curved bench (side) walls has been excavated at La Lagunita.
Most Hohokam ball courts are open ended, and this also was a feature of early Mayan courts. Three Hohokam ball courts with closed end zones and I-shapes typical of later Mayan design were found at Casas Grandes. The length to width ratio of the large Hohokam court at Snaketown is 3.2, the same as Tikal and the large ball court at Chichen Itza. It has stone markers at the center and at the end of each playing alley. Clay Hohokam figures show ball players wearing hip and shoulder pads.
There is little evidence linking Hohokam ball courts to Mayan type ritual and sacrifice. Mesoamerican ball courts are oriented 15-17° east of north, aligning the playing alley with the Milky Way on a June Solstice. Hohokam courts do not share this orientation. There has been little evidence linking the North American game to ritual sacrifice, but archeology seldom yields a definitive answer. Hohokam burial ritual was a cremation rite, but at Pueblo Grande, the best preserved Hohokam ball court, archeologists uncovered a severed head.
But assuming the ball game in the Hohokam settlements was not a Mayan-type ritual, what purpose did it serve? The Hohokam were traders. Large trading cities like Casas Grandes had many ball courts. The population of Casas Grandes was several thousand. They traded shell, copper and turquoise. Hundreds of nesting boxes were found where macaws were raised for their ritual feathers. The city had stone-lined indoor plumbing and sewage with settling tanks, and it had three ball courts. Of course the game might have been played for recreation, but it might also have been used to settle business and trading disputes.
Public space building in Hohokam areas began to change in the late 11th Century. At that time, fewer ball courts were being built and more raised platform mounds, often with walls to limit visibility, were being constructed. Also at about this time, inhumation began replacing cremation as a burial practice. The ball game was always public, with benches and seating for the crowd to witness. The practice of building raised platforms is thought to represent a transition in ceremony away from the public to closed rituals controlled by elite groups with secret, ritual knowledge. It may have been the beginning of clan systems, where each clan controls sacred knowledge needed for a certain ceremony or rite, to achieve a necessary outcome such as plant growth, rainmaking, warfare, or healing.
The Ball Court at Wupatki (photo by me!)
The Snaketown Ball Court (before being back-filled for historic preservation)