Posted on 04/13/2023 10:56:32 AM PDT by Red Badger
The stone shows two people playing a Mesoamerican ball gameImage: Lorenzo Hernandez/REUTERS
The piece displays Mayan hieroglyphic writing surrounding two players standing next to a ball. The Pok Ta Pok ball game was a traditional practice of Mesoamerican peoples.
An apparent stone scoreboard has been discovered at the Chichen Itza archaeological site in southeastern Mexico, archaeologists have said.
The piece measures just over 32 centimeters (12.6 inches) in diameter and weighs 40 kilograms (around 90 pounds). It dates from between A.D. 800 and 900.
It displays Mayan hieroglyphic writing surrounding two players standing next to a ball, according to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
"In this Mayan site, it is rare to find hieroglyphic writing, let alone a complete text," archaeologist Francisco Perez, who is coordinating investigations in the Chichanchob complex, said in statements reported by Reuters.
"The limestone circle, which has Mayan hieroglyphics on its edge and in the middle of it of Mayan dignitaries playing Pok Ta Pok, the pre-Columbian ball game, can change the history of the site by providing a new element that we were not aware of," Marco Antonio Santos Ramirez, director of the Chichen Itza archaeological site, said.
The Pok Ta Pok ball game was a traditional practice of Mesoamerican peoples.
Santos Ramirez said that the discovery was made thanks to investment in archaeological sites under Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government.
INAH researchers are preparing to take high-resolution pictures of the stone for detailed study. They are also to prepare for its conservation.
What is Chichen Itza?
The Chichen Itza complex has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is one of the main archaeological centers of the Mayan civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula.
About 2 million people visit the site every year.
The Maya civilization was one of the most advanced to arise in Mesoamerica. The earliest Maya settlements were built in about 1,000 B.C..
Santos Ramirez told the EFE news agency that the text on the newly discovered stone could be the last hieroglyphics that reflect the Mayan culture of late antiquity, or around 650-900 A.D.
"Mayan classical literature stops at around 900 AD, during the glory days of Chichen Itza," Ramirez said. He said that the finding could provide new information on pre-Columbian Mayan society.
In May 2021, Lopez Obrador apologized to Mexico's indigenous Maya communities for "abuses" committed by "national and foreign authorities." Indigenous Maya people number almost 1.5 million people in southeastern Mexico and over 7 million in neighboring Guatemala, where they make up just over 40% of the population.
Play Ball! PinGGG!......................
Play your heart out! Because you are!................
The “ball” is facing to our right, in profile. You can make out the eyebrows, nose, and ear.
An apparent stone scoreboard has been discovered at the Chichen Itza archaeological site in southeastern Mexico, archaeologists have said.
0 to 0..................
Sudden death overtime.
Wash down that still-beating heart with a cold Dos Equis!
Yeah, for real.
Didn’t they decapitate the losing teams?
The reason why we ask which is ‘ahead’ in the score today.
I was fortunate to tour Chichen Itza many years ago (maybe 30 or so?). Visitors were still allowed to climb the Temple of Kukulkan. It was fascinating, and the trip remains one of my most vivid memories.
I know it is not in vogue to visit Mexico these days, but I would encourage anyone going to Cancun to book a bus tour trip to see Chichen Itza.
Carving stone to keep score of a ball game seems ... extreme.
Okay, as long as it ain’t Bud Light................
How did they know which was the Home Team?...............
Players’ careers were cut rather short....................
“So what was the score?”
The same as every other soccer game ever.......over a thousand years later 0-0.
I also visited many years ago, 1966 when my parents took the family on an extended Yucatan adventure. 8 years old I climbed every one of those structures before they were restricted. Cozumel, Merida, Uxmal, Chichen Itza in the mid 60’s, truly a great trip and adventure. My long departed parents were the best...
Final Score Spain 1, Maya 0
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
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