The ancient Mayan civilization may have found an interesting solution to what their rulers would do when they died: to roll them into a ball and play a game called “pelota” with that ball. Considered one of the oldest team sports in the world, pelota is still played by indigenous communities in parts of Central America. But fortunately, cannons made from the remains of rulers are no longer used.
Evidence of this bizarre sporting tradition was presented by archaeologist Juan Yadeun Angulo of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). While excavating the Toniná temple complex in southern Mexico, Angulo and his colleagues uncovered 400 pottery containing a mixture of human ashes, rubber, charcoal and plant roots.
“After cross-referencing [this finding] with written records about the Maya site, it appears that the cremated remains were used to produce rubber balls used in the ritual game of Pelota,” said INAH in a statement.
Toniná dates back to the Classical Maya period, 500 to 687 AD, and has a sunken ballpark where pelota was once played. The pottery was found buried about 8 meters below the Temple of the Sun, in a crypt that Yadeun Angulo says was reserved for the ritual conversion of deceased rulers.
This hypothesis is largely based on messages engraved on the three scoring circles that mark the boundaries of the pelota field in Toniná. According to these inscriptions, the three former rulers were taken to the “Cave of the Dead”, where they went through a 260-day “transformation” process.
The carvings specifically identify Wak Chan Káhk’, who died on September 1, 775, and Aj Kololte, who died on April 1, 776, and a woman named Káwiil Kaan, who died in 722. The sulfur from the ashes of these three rulers was probably used to vulcanize the rubber from which the pelota balls were made, INAH said.
“It’s illuminating to know that the rulers of the Maya tried to turn their [dead] bodies into a living force, something that would move people,” said Yadeun Angulo.
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