The Mesoamerican ball game was known as teotlachco by the Nahua culture, whereas the act of playing ball was called tlachtli or ulamaliztli, and is one of the most emblematic and complex cultural practices in the pre-Hispanic world. Documentation of the game dates back to the Preclassic Period (2500 BC - 200 AD), even into the 16th century, and it was played by several civilizations, such as the Olmecs, Mayas, Zapotecs, Mexicas and other regional Mesoamerican cultures. Playing ball, beyond being a competitive sport, was a ritual expression deeply linked to the cultures’ cosmovision, politics and war.
The playing fields, in general, are shaped like an “I,” divided in two by a perpendicular line. Rings decorated with symbols of stars and war were set up beside the line The orientation of the field was north to south – alluding to the sun’s journey throughout the year – or east to west – related to the sun’s rising and setting. The players used different elements according to each region; however, they used their hip the most to hit the ball. In symbolic terms, the game reflected the struggle between dual forces that governed the Mesoamerican universe: life/death, light/darkness, masculine/feminine, heaven/earth.
According to Mexica sources, Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, established the tzompantli and the ball game after defeating his uncles, the stars, the centzonhuitznahua, whose hearts he ate. In the Mayan world, the Popol Vuh tells of the feats of the identical twins Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué, who descended into the underworld to combat the gods of death; after defeating the gods, the twins became the Sun and the Moon. Both stories share a cosmic framework in which the meaning of the ball game is the interaction of opposing forces that create change and give birth to new times, beings (such as the Sun and Moon) and institutions, to nourish the gods.
Astral readings have allowed for an understanding of the architecture of the playing fields as representations of the sky: the rings, used as markers, symbolize the stars entering and leaving the horizon, the ball, made of rubber, embodies the Sun and the Moon; and the game itself replicates the cosmic movement of opposites, an eternal and necessary struggle to keep the world alive. According to colonial sources, the sky was analogous to a human head, the body to the earth and the earth to the ball. These corresponding symbols help to elucidate the decapitation rituals associated with the game, conducted to favor agricultural renewal and maintenance of universal order and fertility. In this context, the tlachco and the tzompantli in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán were two complementary and opposing spaces: the first related to life and heavenly movements; the second, related to earth, death and sacrifice. Both are part of a cosmological framework that underpinned the need to keep the stars separate from the earth.
The political and social dimensions of the game were also meaningful, since they were a way to legitimize the cities’ power and worked as a sacrificial rite within the framework of a “controlled” war, in which the defeated were sacrificed ritually. In several Mayan cities and among the Mexicas, the governing authority posited himself as the embodiment of the gods when he played against his enemies. The relationship between the game and war is also evident in the players’ formations on the field, similar to warriors in combat. The ball game was deeply symbolic and also had a playful side: some games had professional players and bets were placed on the outcome.