Post by FAB 15 on Feb 10, 2011 11:09:44 GMT -5
..since ancient times.
When I was art director at the DA way back when, I did a lot of research on Aztec-related aspects of all the sections of the paper (city, sports, entertainment, etc) and came across a decent amount of stuff relating to a ballgame similar to basketball and volleyball that people used to play back in the day (ie 1,000 BC).
But this was before Wikipedia and all that, so I looked it up again and found some cool tidbits of info:
The Aztec version of the ballgame is called ullamalitzli[65] and are derived from the word ōlli "rubber" and the verb ōllama or "to play ball". The ball itself was called ōllamaloni and the ballcourt was called a tlachtli [ˈtɬatʃtɬi].[66] In the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan the largest ballcourt was called Teotlachco ("in the holy ballcourt") – here several important rituals would take place on the festivals of the month Panquetzalitzli, including the sacrifice of four war captives to the honor of Huitzilopochtli and his herald Paynal.
And here's the best part:
With the Aztec version of the game, the skulls of losing teammembers were even placed in a 'skull rack' besides the field, and their blood was offered as 'food for the gods'.[1] There has even been speculation that the heads and skulls were used as balls.[56]
Hell yes. Bombaye.
/knowledge drop
When I was art director at the DA way back when, I did a lot of research on Aztec-related aspects of all the sections of the paper (city, sports, entertainment, etc) and came across a decent amount of stuff relating to a ballgame similar to basketball and volleyball that people used to play back in the day (ie 1,000 BC).
But this was before Wikipedia and all that, so I looked it up again and found some cool tidbits of info:
The Aztec version of the ballgame is called ullamalitzli[65] and are derived from the word ōlli "rubber" and the verb ōllama or "to play ball". The ball itself was called ōllamaloni and the ballcourt was called a tlachtli [ˈtɬatʃtɬi].[66] In the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan the largest ballcourt was called Teotlachco ("in the holy ballcourt") – here several important rituals would take place on the festivals of the month Panquetzalitzli, including the sacrifice of four war captives to the honor of Huitzilopochtli and his herald Paynal.
And here's the best part:
With the Aztec version of the game, the skulls of losing teammembers were even placed in a 'skull rack' besides the field, and their blood was offered as 'food for the gods'.[1] There has even been speculation that the heads and skulls were used as balls.[56]
Hell yes. Bombaye.
/knowledge drop
