Aztec Rubber Ball

Mesoamerica extends roughly from central mexico to.

Aztec rubber ball. The ball or ulli was made of hard rubber and weighed about 9 pounds. The aztec olmec and maya of mesoamerica are known to have made rubber using natural latex a milky sap like fluid found in some plants. 3 archaeological evidence indicates that rubber was already in use in mesoamerica by the early formative period a dozen balls were found in the olmec el manati sacrificial bog and dated to roughly 1600 bce. The aztec version of the ballgame is called ōllamalitzli sometimes spelled ullamaliztli and are derived from the word ōlli rubber and the verb ōllama or to play ball.

The bouncing rubber balls used to play today s most popular sports can be traced back 3 500 years to the dangerous and deadly ancient mesoamerican sport of ulama. The ball court was usually in the shape of an i although there were some variations. The ball itself was called ōllamaloni and the ballcourt was called a tlachtli ˈtɬatʃtɬi. The use of rubber was important in the olmec aztec and maya civilizations of mesoamerica.

The aztec ball game had a distinctive court known as the tlachtli or tlachco. Around the court was a slope surrounded at the outer edge by walls about 8 11 feet high. Rubber was created by taking latex from rubber tress that were in abundance in mesoamerica and adding juice from morning glory vines.