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The Mesoamerican ballgame (ōllamaliztli in Nahuatl (), pitz in Classical Maya, modern Spanish "El juego de la pelota") was a sport with ritual associations played since 1,400 BCE〔See Hill, Blake and Clark (1998); Schuster (1998).〕 by the pre-Columbian peoples of Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a newer more modern version of the game, ''ulama'', is still played in a few places by the indigenous population.〔Fox, John. (''The ball : discovering the object of the game" ), 1st ed., New York : Harper, 2012. ISBN 9780061881794. Cf. Chapter 4: "Sudden Death in the New World" about the Ulama game.〕 The rules of ōllamaliztli are not known, but judging from its descendant, ''ulama'', they were probably similar to racquetball,〔Schwartz.〕 where the aim is to keep the ball in play. The stone ballcourt goals are a late addition to the game. In the most common theory of the game, the players struck the ball with their hips, although some versions allowed the use of forearms, rackets, bats, or handstones. The ball was made of solid rubber and weighed as much as 4 kg (9 lbs), and sizes differed greatly over time or according to the version played. The game had important ritual aspects, and major formal ballgames were held as ritual events, often featuring human sacrifice. The sport was also played casually for recreation by children and perhaps even women.〔The primary evidence for female ballplayers is in the many apparently female figurines of the Formative period, wearing a ballplayer loincloth and perhaps other gear. In ''The Sport of Life and Death'', editor Michael Whittington says: "It would () seem reasonable that women also played the game—perhaps in all-female teams—or participated in some yet to be understood ceremony enacted on the ballcourt." (p. 186). In the same volume, Gillett Griffin states that although these figurines have been "interpreted by some as females, in the context of ancient Mesoamerican society the question of the presence of female ballplayers, and their role in the game, is still debated." (p. 158).〕 Pre-Columbian ballcourts have been found throughout Mesoamerica, as for example at Copán, as far south as modern Nicaragua, and possibly as far north as what is now the U.S. state of Arizona.〔The evidence for ballcourts among the Hohokam is not accepted by all researchers and even the proponents admit that the proposed Hohokam ballcourts are significantly different from Mesoamerican ones: they are oblong, with a concave (not flat) surface. See Wilcox's article and photo at end of this article.〕 These ballcourts vary considerably in size, but all have long narrow alleys with slanted side-walls against which the balls could bounce. ==Origins== It is not known precisely when or where ōllamaliztli originated, although it is likely that the game originated earlier than 1400 BCE in the low-lying tropical zones home to the rubber tree.〔There is wide agreement on game originating in the tropical lowlands, likely the Gulf Coast or Pacific Coast: see e.g. Shelton, p. 109-110.〕 One candidate for the birthplace of the ballgame is the Soconusco coastal lowlands along the Pacific Ocean.〔Taladoire (2001) pp. 107–108.〕 Here, at Paso de la Amada, archaeologists have found the oldest ballcourt yet discovered, dated to approximately 1400 BCE.〔 The other major candidate is the Olmec heartland, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec along the Gulf Coast.〔Miller and Taube (1993, p.42)〕 The Aztecs referred to their Postclassic contemporaries who then inhabited the region as the ''Olmeca'' (i.e. "rubber people") since the region was strongly identified with latex production.〔These Gulf Coast inhabitants, the Olmeca-Xicalanca, are not to be confused with the Olmec, the name bestowed by 20th century archaeologists on the influential Gulf Coast civilization which had dominated that region three thousand years earlier.〕 The earliest-known rubber balls come from the sacrificial bog at El Manatí, an early Olmec-associated site located in the hinterland of the Coatzacoalcos River drainage system. Villagers, and subsequently archaeologists, have recovered a dozen balls ranging in diameter from 10 to 22 cm from the freshwater spring there. Five of these balls have been dated to the earliest-known occupational phase for the site, approximately 1700–1600 BCE.〔Ortiz and Rodríguez (1999), pp. 228–232, 242–243.〕 These rubber balls were found with other ritual offerings buried at the site, indicating that even at this early date ōllamaliztli had religious and ritual connotations.〔Diehl, p. 27. See also Uriarte, p. 41, who finds that the juxtaposition at El Manatí of the deposited balls and serpentine staffs (which may have been used to strike the balls—see Ortíz C, 1992) shows that there was already a "well-developed ideological relationship between the ()game, power, and serpents."〕 A stone "yoke" of the type frequently associated with Mesoamerican ballcourts was also reported to have been found by local villagers at the site, leaving open the distinct possibility that these rubber balls were related to the ritual ballgame, and not simply an independent form of sacrificial offering.〔Ortíz and Rodríguez (1999, p.249); see also Ortiz, Rodríguez, and Delgado (1992) which investigates this relationship, as cited in the foregoing paper.〕 Excavations at the nearby Olmec site of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán have also uncovered a number of ballplayer figurines, radiocarbon-dated as far back as 1250–1150 BCE. A rudimentary ballcourt, dated to a later occupation at San Lorenzo, 600–400 BCE, has also been identified.〔Diehl, p. 32, although the identification of a ballcourt within San Lorenzo has not been universally accepted.〕 From the tropical lowlands, ōllamaliztli apparently moved into central Mexico. Starting around 1000 BCE or earlier, ballplayer figurines were interred with burials at Tlatilco and similarly styled figurines from the same period have been found at the nearby Tlapacoya site.〔Bradley & Joralemon,〕 It was about this period, as well, that the so-called Xochipala-style ballplayer figurines were crafted in Guerrero. Although no ballcourts of similar age have been found in Tlatilco or Tlapacoya, it is possible that the ballgame was indeed played in these areas, but on courts with perishable boundaries or temporary court markers.〔Ekholm, p. 242.〕 By 300 BCE, evidence for ōllamaliztli appears throughout much of the Mesoamerican archaeological record, including ballcourts in the Central Chiapas Valley (the next oldest ballcourts discovered, after Paso de la Amada),〔Finca Acapulco, San Mateo, and El Vergel, along the Grijalva, have ballcourts dated between 900 and 550 BCE (Agrinier, p. 175).〕 and in the Oaxaca Valley, as well as ceramic ballgame tableaus from Western Mexico (see photo here). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mesoamerican ballgame」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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