Cities of the Ancient Maya Homepage General Information An inscription at the ballcourt in Uxmal seems to indicate that this structure was dedicated in the year 649 AD. There is an additional date elsewhere indicating to archeologists that in 901, the Maya added a huge coiled snake, intended to represent the serpent god Kukulkan, in the design of the ballcourt, likely a result of the Toltec influence later incorporated into most Mayan designs.

There are several accounts of the Aztecs and Maya playing the "games" at the time of the conquest. However no one noted the rules of the game or the manner in which it was scored. No surviving pictures or carvings ever show that the ball was touched with the hands, so archeologists have deduced that the ball could not be caught or kicked. The ball itself was a little larger than a basketball and was made of solid rubber so was quite heavy, hence the need for protective padding. Players shown in the carvings are shown with a single knee-pad which may tell us they continually dropped on the same knee during play. Players were richly dressed and decorated during play to add to the social and religious significance of the game.

Evidence at other sites seem to show eleven players in addition to the captains, while other images show twelve. Figures are shown wearing the typical gear for the games. Knee pads and foot covers with sandals shown only on the left foot (and the same leg as the knee pad). Fringed padding protects their arms and each figure has a unique headdress and personal jewelry. Each figure wears a protective "U" shaped yoke-belt that was worn around the waist. This heavy belt (made of stone or heavy wood) and other gear protected the player from the dense rubber ball when they hit it using only their waist, forearms and thighs in order to hit it through the goal. Players are also shown holding stones carved into the effigies of animals showing the religious significance the ceremony held other than simply a "game".

Though the proportions of this ballcourt are much smaller than in other ceremonial centers such as Chichén Itzá, the essential design is the same throughout the Yucatan. Courts are rectangular, with an angled bench that runs the longest length of the court. A vertical wall is positioned behind these benches and the court's two goals are positioned out of this vertical wall, up the longest sides.

The Popal Vuh named the ball used in these games "White Flint" as it said it was made of flint covered with powdered bone. A common modern myth is that it was the winner of each game that was sacrificed. There is, in fact, no archeological evidence to support this theory and it is likely incorrect. The kneeling posture of the sacrificed victim shown in the carvings is a common show of submission and is more likely to be associated with the loser of the game rather than the victor.

The two ballcourt goals or "rings" are richly carved with glyphs and religious images. Any goal scored is actually passing the ball through a portal into the Otherworld. In some cases human eyes peer out between the bodies of entwined serpents so that the rings are also "seeing" instruments used by the gods to view the games.

The court itself was intended to represent the act of creation. The Maya constructed the angled shape of the benches to represent the crack in the top of Creation Mountain. The Popal Vuh shows us the Mayan word "hom" or crevice is also the word for Ballcourt. As a symbolic crevice in the surface of the earth, playing the game granted access into the Otherworld. where the Mayan ancestors and gods lived. The Maya played the game to re-enact the moment when the third creation ended and the fourth (the one we live in today) began. The entire motif of the structures that make up a Mayan ballcourt are all related to the moment of this fourth creation

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