Olmec rubber balls preserved with anoxia technology

[Judi Lynn]

2. I just found videos showing the game! It had to be a little rough on the players,

before they won or lost the game, as they couldn't use their hands or feet to control the ball!

The first and second videos both mention the Olmecs, and note the game is around 3,500 years old! One of the videos says the game as played in recreated versions in the present uses a ball which is 7 pounds.

It was unsettling hearing one of the videos mentioning that the players could get killed from getting hit in the head or stomach from the very fast travelling ball! Holy smokes! Check, please!

It would seem the only sensible uniform would look like this:







One of the videos shows that the size of the ball is portrayed in ancient artwork as being very, very large, but indicates it was exaggerated for one reason or another.

I'm still in the dark about why players were deliberately "clipped, zotzed, iced, wasted, etc." for losing the game. If they killed the winners, no doubt that could have led to the world's longest, clumsiest game ever played!