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Ball Courts
Daily Life in the
Maya Empire
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Honoring the Gods:
Ball courts were usually positioned at the foot of a temple. Ball
games had religious meanings. Games were played to honor the Hero Twins and
other Maya gods and goddesses.Each Maya city had at least one
huge ball court similar to the stadiums we have today.
Tiers of bleacher seating surrounded each open air ball court. Ball
courts and the games played within them were important to the Maya people.
People poured in from the surrounding areas each time a game was played in a
nearby city. Games were always played during the religious festivals held every
20 days.
The Game: Courts had a large playing area. There was a stone hoop mounted in the wall at one end. The Mayas used the ball courts to play a ball game they called pok-a-tok. It was a very rough sport.
Pok-a-tok is a mix of soccer, basketball, and kick ball. It was played with a solid hard rubber ball. You could not hit the ball with your hands. It had to be hit with the hips, shoulders, or arms. The object of the game was to hit the rubber ball through the stone ring that was attached to the wall at one end of the court. Ball players wore protective clothing when playing.
Winners: When playing games among themselves, or against other Maya cities, the winning team got to keep the jewelry of the losing team.
Losers:
Some games were played with captives, people
from other Indian tribes that Maya warriors had captured. These games were of
great interest to the Maya people. Poorly
fed, exhausted, beaten captives made up one team, and professional Maya ball
players made up the other. The beaten captives always lost these games. After
they lost, they were sacrificed.
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