The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina has assembled the most comprehensive exhibit of materials ever displayed about the Mesoamerican ballgame. This superbly illustrated volume was produced to accompany the exhibit that is now showing at the New Orleans Museum of Art and travels to Omaha and Newark later this year. The Olmec began playing a ballgame with a rubber ball as early as 1800 B.C. and it developed in many forms until it was prohibited by the Spanish is the 16th century.
The game, which spread as far south as Honduras and as far north as Arizona, remains an enigma to this day. Whittington has assembled essays by ten noted archaeologists and art historians that give us valuable insights into the game and the ceremonies and rituals that accompanied it. Tackling topics from rubber making to mythology and equipment to game strategy, the authors give us a better understanding of this deceptively complex game.
The ball courts are found at virtually every Mesoamerican site; they are usually near the center of the ceremonial district and there is often more than one. The courts come in various sizes and shapes and clearly demonstrate a central feature of Mesoamerican life. It’s not known how the game was played, or even who was allowed to watch. Was it just a game or was it an allegory of life itself? The game inspired countless works of art, immortalizing those who played it, and this volume superbly illustrates that art in all its glory from painted scenes on ceramics to carved stone equipment.
At the greatest of the surviving ball courts in Chichén Itzá, bas-reliefs show elaborately dressed ball players being beheaded. But are they the winners or the losers? The Sport of Life and Death gives us an extraordinary insight into this amazing ancient phenomenon.
