Ballplayer

The Mesoamerican ballgame was central to communal, social, and ritual activities throughout the region, with iterations of the sport still played today. Figurines of ballplayers such as this one appear as early as the first millennium at the archaeological site of Tlapacoya, located in the Valley of Mexico and inhabited by the early Tlatilco community. Despite its small size, this solid male figurine has a commanding presence. It is rendered voluminously, with wide hips, rotund torso and muscular legs. The pointed feet do not allow the figure to stand on its own, indicating that it was meant to be hand-held. His facial features are carefully sculpted, likely using a stylus, with inset eyelids, details of rounded pupils, pointed nose, and a curved, open mouth as if he were smiling.

This stout ballplayer is ready for sport, with upraised arms and clenched fists in a flexed position. He is adorned in hand-modeled protective gear including a helmet with wide strap, a thick chin guard around the jawline, an exceptionally large collar that wraps around his neck, and wrist and ankle guards. This suggests that high impact strikes were relegated to several areas of the body. The only clothing he wears is a tightly woven loincloth tied at the back.

The game was played using a solid ball made of rubber, a durable plant polymer widely used throughout the Americas from the Southwestern United States to the Gran Chaco Forest of Argentina (Filloy Nadal 2001: 21, Stern 1966: 4–5). It was often played in ball courts made of limestone that varied greatly in size and configuration. Some courts were constructed in residential areas with simple aisles while others were in ceremonial plazas with endzones forming a “T” or “I”-shaped playing field and vertical or sharply angled walls for public spectatorship. Although rules of the game varied across Mesoamerica, Spanish chroniclers from the sixteenth century documented Aztec/Mexica players using their upper arms and thighs to forcefully strike the ball. The stakes could be dire in this sport, resulting in a vigorous game of life or death corresponding to the movements of the gods and celestial bodies.

The protective equipment used by ballplayers was likely made of organic materials that no longer survive, and no formal ballcourts have been found in Tlatilco. Yet figurines like this one provide evidence of the antiquity of the game, permanently sculpted in clay.

Brandon Agosto, 2024

Further Reading

Covarrubias, Miguel. Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.

Earley, Caitlin C. “The Mesoamerican Ballgame.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mball/hd_mball.htm (June 2017)

Filloy Nadal, Laura. “Rubber and Rubber Balls in Mesoamerica,” In: The Sport of life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame, pp. 20-31, edited by E. Michael Whittington, London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

Leyenaar, Ted J. J. Ulama: The Perpetuation in Mexico of the pre-Spanish ball game Ullamaliztli. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978.

Miller, Mary E. “The Ballgame,” Record of the Art Museum Princeton University, Vol. 48, no. 2, (1989): 22-31.

Nicholson, Henry B. "Major Sculpture in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico." In Handbook of Middle American Indians, edited by Gordon F. Eckholm and Ignacio Bernal, Part I: 92–134. 10. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.

Scarborough, Vincent L., and David R. Wilcox (Eds.). The Mesoamerican Ballgame. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991.

Uriarte, María Teresa. “Unity in Duality: The Practice and Symbols of the Mesoamerican Ballgame,” In: The Sport of life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame, pp. 40–49, edited by E. Michael Whittington, London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.