Ancient Ohioans' ball game mix of sport, religious ritual [ chungke or chunkey ]

Columbus Dispatch ^ | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper

[SunkenCiv]

As I've watched the Olympic trials on television, I've thought about the role athletic competitions might have played in ancient Ohio... In 1775, English trader James Adair described a game called chungke or chunkey that he saw being played in the South. Warriors took turns hurling a wheel-shape stone across a square plaza while others threw spears at the place where they anticipated the stone would come to rest. Adair writes that the chunkey stones were "kept with the strictest religious care" and belonged to the "town where they are used." Chunkey stones are a hallmark of the Mississippian period, about A.D. 900 to 1700. Examples of these magnificently ground and polished stones are found across eastern North America, including Ohio. Shell engravings from this period depict scenes of chunkey players... Adair makes it clear that the chunkey players, as well as those who watched and bet on the outcome, were as obsessed with the game as any modern Buckeye or Wolverine.

[SunkenCiv]

Open wide for chunkey.

[SunkenCiv]

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[manic4organic]

Mmmmm...chunkey.

[CholeraJoe]

That seems really odd for a culture that never used the wheel for carrying loads.

[doodad]

The town of Ball Ground, GA near my house is so named due to a ball field there that was used to play a game like lacrosse.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Oddly enough, this was what the winner received...

[NathanR]

What do you mean by “like lacrosse”? Lacrosse is an Indian game, but with rules quite unlike the modern game. (You could carry the ball in one's mouth, for instance.)

[doodad]

I don’t know, but that is the description I have always heard. A ball of some sort hit and moved forward with a stick. Let me see if I can find more.

[doodad]

I found this, but can’t vouch for any accuracy. I have always heard similar things though.

http://www.telliquah.com/History3.htm

[NathanR]

Sounds like lacrosse to me. It was called ‘lacrosse’ because the game sticks were formed somewhat a bishop's crosier. I heard that once some Europeans wanted to see a lacrosse game. The Indians broke off the game early, after hours of play, and attacked the Europeans.

[bert]

wheels are worthless without axles

[bert]

Strangely believe it but folks still gather on the Tennessee River to watch young men from Tennessee compete with young men from Gaw-ga in ball games. The riverside site is called Neyland Stadium and on autumn Saturday afternoons it resounds with the prayer song called “Rocky Top”.

Funny looking dogs are sacrificed to the Vol mania