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Archaeologists have found a stone in Mexico that likely served as a scoreboard for an ancient Mayan ball game. The discovery will help scientists learn more about how people in Central America entertained themselves.
The round stone is at least twelve hundred years old and weighs 40 kilograms. It was found at Chichén Itzá, in the eastern Yucatán Peninsula. Chichén Itzá was a very important center of power in Mayan times. Today it is an archaeological dig.
The stone represents, among other things, two capped figures playing pelota ball. This game may be three thousand years old and was very popular among the Maya. Other peoples of Central America also played it.
There are also chiselled words on the stone, which archaeologists say is very special. “It’s already not often that we find artifacts with Mayan writing,” says archaeologist Francisco Pérez Ruiz of the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). “A full text is completely rare. It hadn’t happened in over ten years.”
INAH experts are still deciphering the signs. Early translations indicate that it contains rules for pelota and a means of counting points.
The game is played with a rubber ball which must be hit through a circle. The game may be a predecessor to squash.
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