#chacchoben

The Ball Game of Mesoamerica

The sport known simply as the Ball Game was played by all the major Mesoamerican civilizations and the impressive stone courts became a feature of many cities. More than just a game, it could have a religious significance and featured in episodes of mythology. Contests even supplied candidates for human sacrifice and became literally a game of life or death.

Origins

The game was invented sometime in the Preclassical Period (2500-100 BCE), probably by the Olmec, and became a common Mesoamerican-wide feature of the urban landscape by the Classical Period (300-900 CE). Eventually, the game was even exported to other cultures in North America and the Caribbean.

In Mesoamerican mythology the game is an important element in the story of the Maya gods Hun Hunahpú and Vucub Hunahpú. The pair annoyed the gods of the underworld with their noisy playing and the two brothers were tricked into descending into Xibalba (the underworld) where they were challenged to a ball game. Losing the game, Hun Hunahpús had his head cut off; a foretaste of what would become common practice for players unfortunate enough to lose a game.

In another legend, a famous ball game was held at the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan between the Aztec king Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (r. 1502-1520 CE) and the king of Texcoco. The latter had predicted that Motecuhzoma's kingdom would fall and the game was set-up to establish the truth of this bold prediction. Motecuhzoma lost the game and did, of course, lose his kingdom at the hands of the invaders from the Old World. The story also supports the idea that the ball game was sometimes used for the purposes of divination.

Xibalba

Xibalba (Shee-bal-ba) was the name the K'iche Maya gave to the underworld. For the Yucatec Maya the underworld was known as Metnal. The name Xibalba translates as 'Place of Fright', which indicates the terror the place had in the Maya imagination. There was, unfortunately, not much chance of escaping the place, either. Ideas such as leading a good life and avoiding eternal torment by not doing bad things were not part of the Maya belief system, as only those who died a violent death avoided Xibalba. The underworld was a truly fearsome place, strongly associated with water; it had its own landscape, gods, and blood-thirsty predators. Xibalba was also the scene of many adventures by the heroes of Maya mythology, especially the Hero Twins.

The Geography of Xibalba

For the Maya Xibalba lay to the far west, hence the great number of burials made on the islands of Campeche, located off the west coast of the Yucatan peninsula, making it the most western Maya territory. Xibalba was entered through a cave or area of still water in Tlalticpac, which was the surface of the earth and the first of the nine underworld levels. The Milky Way was also considered an entrance to Xibalba and the road along which souls walked to meet their fate. The Maya, believing the underworld had nine different levels, represented this idea in the gigantic stone pyramids they built as tombs for their kings which often have nine tiers. See, for example, the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Temple I at Tikal, or the Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza.

The Maya believed that the underworld was ruled by a group of gods (possibly 9 or 14), known collectively as the lords of the underworld. These have fearsome names and include 1 Death and 7 Death (the two most important), Pus Master, Bone Sceptre, Skull Sceptre, Jaundice Master, Blood Gatherer, and Bloody Claws. Many of these lords could occasionally come up to the world of the living where they would spread misery and disease. The Maya also believed that each astronomical god had its own manifestation in the underworld. For example, the Sun God K'inich Ajaw, when he was travelling through the underworld at night, became the Jaguar God of the Underworld.The most important Maya religious book, the Popol Vuh, describes some details of the geography within Xibalba. The underworld is vast with as much variety in landscape as the outside world of the living. Further, there are two great rivers, perhaps more, which run through it. To reach the ninth level of Xibalba, many trials and dangers had to be faced by the dead. These included the crossing of dangerous waters and high mountains, rivers of blood, attack by spinning obsidian knives and arrows, and even the sacrifice of one's heart. To help the soul survive such an ordeal, the dead were buried or cremated with useful pieces of equipment such as weapons, tools, weaving kits, precious goods like jade, sustaining food such as hot chocolate, and even dogs (real or pottery effigies) to act as companions and guides.

Chacchoben

Chacchoben es un sitio maya que data aproximadamente del año 700 d.C., ubicado en el estado de Quintana Roo, México. En su época, fue un importante y extenso centro urbano religioso, pero la ciudad fue abandonada hacia el 900-950, en la misma época que las demás grandes ciudades mayas, y poco a poco quedó cubierta por la selva circundante. Las ruinas fueron descubiertas en 1942 por un agricultor que construyó su casa cerca y protegió el sitio hasta 1972, cuando un arqueólogo estadounidense lo encontró y lo dio a conocer al gobierno. El nombre Chacchoben es una designación moderna que significa «Lugar del maíz rojo». Se desconoce el nombre original de la ciudad en la antigüedad.