1,300-year-old Belizean Stone Panels
Depicting Mayan Ballplayers
Two 1,300-year-old stone panels show Mayans playing with nine-handspan balls while carrying fancy fans.
The panels were discovered at the archaeological site of Tipan Chen Uitz in Belize in 2015, dating from about 700 AD. They are the first panels relating to ballplayers found in Belize. The images have short and complete hieroglyphic captions.
“as though attempting to strike a ball,” write the reasearchers in the study
[Credit: Christophe Helmke/Antiquity 2017]
The panel has the inscription “nine handspan ball”, suggesting a measurement of the circumference of the ball. Elsewhere, the player appears to be given the unusual nickname “Waterscroll Ocelot”. On the second panel, which is slightly smaller, also shows a figure in the thick of the action of a game. Again, the area around the figure’s face has been hammered off.
Ballgames were important in the social and political spheres of the Mayan culture, the authors of a new study on the panels write in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
“as though attempting to strike a ball,” write the reasearchers in the study
[Credit: Christophe Helmke/Antiquity 2017]
The game was by no means limited to the common Mayan people. Nobility and local rulers were often depicted playing, and foreign dignitaries were also frequently depicted in images and artwork dating from the time.
“These ballplayer panels may reflect a greater system of allegiances cemented in part by public performances involving [land owners] and overlords participating in the ballgame,” the authors write.
It’s hoped that further study of these panels could elucidate more of the socio-political landscape of the more distant and poorly recorded elements of Mayan history.
Author: Martha Henriques | Source: International Business Times [September 27, 2017]