The Ballgame and Sociopolitical Organization in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Los Rituales del Juego de Pelota en la Costa del Golfo / Ballgame Rituals in the Gulf Lowlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Although ballgame paraphernalia and figurines depicting ballgame players have been reported from Tres Zapotes and other nearby sites since the 1930s, the identification of ballcourts in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin (ELPB) has been elusive. At Tres Zapotes, the areas between mounds and in the hollows between parallel ridges of the Ranchito group and Lower Terrace could have served as ballcourts. However, no formal ballcourts had been reported in the region. Over the last decade, a large-scale regional survey, aided by Lidar mapping, of the area extending from south of Tres Zapotes to the Late Formative Center of El Mesón has changed this picture. While it is not clear if ballcourts were ever present at Tres Zapotes, a number of ballcourts were indicated by the lidar in Standard Plan architectural complexes that emerged in the region during the Protoclassic and Early Classic periods. Here, we examine the distribution of these complexes across the ELPB, the variation in their form and layout, and make some observations on the roles that these courts, and the ballgame itself, may have played in the sociopolitical dynamics of the Early Classic period in the ELPB.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Los Rituales del Juego de Pelota en la Costa del Golfo / Ballgame Rituals in the Gulf Lowlands   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38246.0