#MesoamericanBallgame
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patrickkapty.bsky.social
Decapitated Ball Player with Seven Serpents Sprouting from the Neck
carved stone relief
c. 400-700 CE
Classic Veracruz culture
Aparicio, Veracruz, Mexico

#handmade #carved #stone #relief #Mesoamerica #MesoamericanBallgame #Aparicio #Veracruz #Veracruzculture #decapitatedplayer #sevensnakes #symbol
The Aparicio site was built by the Classic Veracruz culture (sometimes called the Gulf Coast culture). This civilization flourished in the modern-day Mexican state of Veracruz during the Mesoamerican Classic period, roughly between about 400 to 700 CE. This civilization was intensely focused on the Mesoamerican ballgame. Their largest and most famous urban center was El Tajín, located further north of Aparicio, which boasts at least 18 individual ballcourts. Aparicio is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Vega de Alatorre in Veracruz, Mexico. The site is famous for its well-preserved, relief-carved stone plaques (ballcourt panels) depicting ball players. These famous carvings frequently depict a decapitated ball player with seven serpents sprouting from their neck, symbolizing fertility and ritual sacrifice associated with the game.
September 30, 2026 at 4:40 PM
animal-aspects.bsky.social
For #FrogFriday, another cool #MesoamericanBallgame piece seen at @explorenoma.bsky.social :
Stone #Frog Yoke
Veracruz Culture, Gulf Coast Mexico, c. 600-900 CE
NOMA 2001. 338
#MesoamericanArt #IndigenousArt
#HSS2025
photo of the frog form yoke in display case, front view (ceremonial version of Mesoamerican Ballgame gear) photo of the frog form yoke in display case, side view (ceremonial version of Mesoamerican Ballgame gear)
November 15, 2025 at 5:54 AM
patrickkapty.bsky.social
Snake-Bat-Cat Hacha
carved stone
circa 550-950 CE
Maya culture
Mexico

#hacha #maya #snake #bat #cat #zoomorphic #carved #stone #Maya #mayanculture #mesoamerica #palenque #mexico #ancientart #precolumbian #prehispanic #mesoamericanballgame #ceremonial #ritual #sculpture #art #mayanart #ancientmexico
The Mesoamerican ballgame is among the most important and enduring cultural features of the Pre-Columbian world, and its accompanying accoutrements of yokes, hachas, and palmas comprise one of the most important categories of stone sculpture. The objects known as hachas, the Spanish word for “axes”, were originally named for their tapering form’s supposed resemblance to large stone axe heads. Like yokes and palmas, these enigmatic stone artifacts probably represent ritual effigies of actual ballgame equipment that was probably made of lighter and more perishable materials. These ceremonial objects in stone were evidently of high value, but many questions remain around the context in which they were originally used. The bold and assured carving of the present hacha illustrates several features that are particularly distinctive to hachas depicting bats. These include the large, pricked, ears, the depiction of the tragus, the fleshy form at the lower part of the ear, and the perforation in the upper half, which Shook and Marquis note “seldom occurs on specimens in other categories” (Edwin M. Shook and Elayne Marquis, op. cit., p. 77). Interestingly, this perforation is present on almost every hacha from the great Mayan city state of Palenque (ibid.). Although illustrating features distinctive to a bat, something in the powerful physiognomy of this hacha seems to suggest a snarling jaguar. This hacha differs from most depictions of jaguars in hachas – although the fleshy snout suggests the big cat more than the bat – but Shook and Marquis note the resemblance, and state that “perhaps bat/jaguar/serpent would more accurately describe this representation.” (ibid., p. 80). The serpent, which here arches up from the bat’s snout, its slithering head atop the bat’s ear, was a creature with “important mythological connotations, and often associated with water and rain.” (ibid., p. 171). Hachas with secondary representations are rare.
March 26, 2026 at 2:29 PM
historyshortspod.bsky.social
Ullamaliztli: Mesoamerica's deadly sport!
3,000+ years old—hip-only rubber ball game on sacred courts. Cosmic ritual for sun/moon battles... but losers sacrificed to gods.

LISTEN: directory.libsyn.com/episode/inde...

#Ullamaliztli #MesoamericanBallgame #AncientHistory #DeadlySport #HistoryShorts
January 28, 2026 at 12:53 PM