...an ancient set of leather balls inside tombs of the prehistoric Yanghai cemetery near the modern city of Turfan... contained a central core crafted from leather or hair products and are encased in a leather pouch tied up together with a band. Two of the three are clearly marked with a red cross on the outer leather cover and were located in the burials sites of possible horse riders, indicating that they might have been employed in an early form of polo. These baseball-sized Turfan balls were carefully examined by researchers and radiocarbon dated back to the period between 1189...
