A Commoner Perspective of the Ancient Maya Ballgame in Northwestern Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the Classic Period the ancient Maya ballgame has been seen as a focal point of religious and political ritual practices. These activities primarily take place in spaces where commoners are traditionally thought to have been excluded and serve to reinforce the ideology and legitimacy of elite religious beliefs. This paper will outline excavations of a commoner ballcourt at the site of Chico in northwestern Belize and explore thematic variations evident in the architecture, materiality, and ecology of the site. Through an emphasis upon hydrology and terminal ritual practices it is argued that the ballgame had an important role in the organization and administration of commoner communities at the end of the Late/Terminal Classic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53919