The video below is a reconstruction of the Ancient Maya ballgame that involved using the hips to hit a heavy rubber ball, with an aim to get it through a stone ring to score. Having actually watched this in real life (by real life I mean at a show in Mexico, and not by time-travelling unfortunately) I definitely think it is far more difficult to play than our regular football… However, one thing the video certainly doesn’t portray is the fact that losers were decapitated and sacrificed to the Gods!
This is one of the many examples showing how vibrant the society really was, but also how brutal it could be. Sacrifice was common throughout Mesoamerica, and it was no different for the Maya, who believed that the Sun would only function if nourishment in the form of human blood was provided (BBC, 2011). Their strict hierarchies and deeply spiritual beliefs may have played a role in their demise, as I shall review in the next couple of posts.
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