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Ancient Maya ball court discovered near Mérida |
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Written by Xiuhcoatl
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Jan 04, 2006 at 11:31 PM |
Ancient Maya ball court discovered near Mérida
The discovery was made during an excavation for a housing development and could give important clues on Maya civilization
Wire services
El Universal
January 04, 2006
MÉRIDA, Yucatán.- Archeologists discovered a 2,500-year-old court used
for the ball game that played a central role in the religion and royal
ceremonies of the Mayas.
Fernando Acevedo and Donato Martín España, researchers with the
National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the court is 25
meters long (82 feet) and 4.5 meters (15 feet) wide and lies about 12
kilometers (7.5 miles) from Mérida.
The discovery took place in the course of excavation for a housing
development, whose plan will now have to be modified, said the top
land-use official in Yucatán state, José Carlos Guzmán Alcocer.
Acevedo and Martín España said they have encountered in the area some
1,500 mounds that have yielded important data about the Maya
civilization.
Martín España said the discovery of the ball court, which he described
as 70 percent intact, confirmed that the Mayas of the Mérida region
attained a level of development comparable to the Mayan city-state of
Tabasco, Guatemala and Oaxaca.
The ball game was common to several Mesoamerican cultures, and the earliest known courts date from as early as 1500 B.C.
The game illustrated the Maya account of the creation of the sun and
moon, said to have taken place after a match in which the gods Hunahpu
and Ixbalanque fought lords of the underworld. |
Archaeology 