The Great Road in the Sky

Hello loyal readers! When last we met, I mentioned that I would show you a ball court, or at least where to find one...

Come outside with me. Yes, yes I know it is the dead of night, trust me it will be worth it. We need the right spot, preferably away from light pollution, outside of cities, as far into the countryside as we can get. Out here away from the glare we can see the stars better.  I want you to look up, and see not just the single stars, but a dense dusting of stars, like a path of spilled milk across the sky. That is the Milky Way. And this amazing sight is the key to a lot of what all the doomsday fuss is all about.

 
Astronomers would tell us that this amazing visual treat is actually a part of the very galaxy our earth is located in. The Milky Way galaxy is called a spiral galaxy, having arms that spiral out from it's center. Earth is on one of the edges of the galaxy, which contains between 200-400 billion stars. It is large beyond belief, 150,000 light years across. Light travels 5,880,000,000,000 miles per year, multiply that by 150,000 and you get the idea, the Milky Way is immense. It is roughly like a flying saucer, with a bulge at its center, and like all Galaxy's is filled with dust, stars and gas. Since we live on an edge, we look across this Galaxy, and that creates the milky road we can see going across the sky. This astronomical feature has had great effect on many of the ancient cultures of the world, especially upon the Mayans.Please note that within it is a dark spot, an opening if you will, called the Dark Rift. To the Mayans the Milky Way and the Dark Rift was several things, including the ball court we spoke of last blog.







Mayans were rather famous for thier ball games. Competing tems played on a ballcourt, trying to get points by driving a ball through a stone ring suspended in the court. So far as we know it was a bit like soccer, no hands were used just the rest of the body. Most famously the losing teams captain was sacrificed to the gods.
Mayan ballcourts were recatngular, had some slanted walls on the sides. Thinking of that shape we can superimpose the structure on the Milky Way, and imagine the Dark Rift as the goal circle.But the Dark Rift, as goal post, is also the entrance to the underworld, called xibalba. We know that the Hero Twins and their Father and Uncle before them, played against the gods in a ball court, and so the Mayans saw this in the night sky. This is a strong connection between astronomy and religion.

I know it is a stretch for us to see a ball court there in the Milky Way, but no more a strecth than seen a hunter, a dipper or a bear. But the Milky Way is more than just a ball court, more on it next blog.

The Ball Game

                                                        Part of the ball court at Iximche



I have mentioned that the Hero Twins, as well as their Father and Uncle, played the notorious Mayan Ball game. We know less about this game than we do about the Aztec version, but we can make some good guesses. This serves as some background to the astronomical impact of 2012. To recap the legendary portion of the story,

"As the tale goes, the Maize Gods were avid ballplayers who were killed and buried on the court by the Lords of Xibalba (the Underworld) for bothering them with the noise of the game. The head of one of the Maize gods was hung from a tree in the Underworld, and as a daughter of the Lord of the Underworld passes, it spit into her palm, miraculously impregnating her. The daughter bore twin sons, the Hero Twins, who avenge their father and uncle’s deaths by resurrecting them on the ballcourt. The Hero Twins go on to survive the ordeals of Hell presented to them by the death gods, while the reborn Maize Gods remain on the ballcourt for humans to honor. The Maya therefore believed that it was necessary to play the game for their own survival. The ballgame provided an opportunity to show devoutness to the gods by sacrificing captured kings and high lords, or the losing opponents of the game."- William Palmer III Collection, University of Maine Orono

The game was called Pitz, (the actual playing called Ti Pitziil in Classic Maya and Chaaj in K'ich'é ), and had a key role in religious, social and political life. The Ball Court was usually in the great plaza of the city, and was considered a focal point. The Court was in the shape of an "I", with high platforms on each long side, allowing many people to view the game. A solid rubber ball was used, ranging in size from a grapefruit to a melon. The goal was to bounce the ball through stone hoops that hung on the sides of the court. The walls were painted with murals of myths, captives, Kings and animals. There were also movable stone markers (hachas) along the Court, usually depicting animals or skulls.



A movable stone marker


Players were not allowed to touch the ball with their hands, but used the rest of their bodies to keep it in the air, as the ball was not allowed to touch the ground during play. Players wore protective clothing as the ball weighed up to 20 pounds. They also used handstones called manopla to strike the ball.


Like modern ball games, Pitz was played by everyone including women and children. But the Mayans also had major games, often to settle disputes between cities, and captives were often forced to play. There is some evidence that the team leader of the losing team was killed, but that is a rather murky fact. The site authenticmaya.com tells us: The game between competing teams of players could symbolize the battles between the gods in the sky and the lords of the underworld. The ball could symbolize the sun. In some of these ritual games, the leader of the losing team would be decapitated, and  His skull would then be used as the core around which a new rubber ball would be made.  A common interpretation would emphasize the Venus cycle and the Maize God death-and-resurrection myth as core religious aspects of the game. The ancient Maya are believed to reenact, through the ball game, the mythic Underworld contest between the gods of life or fertility and the gods of death. 

Part of the Ball Court at Tikal

But you need not travel to Guatemala nor Mexico to see a Ball Court. Next post, I will tell you where you can find one......

J.T. Turner, Mayanist

Popul Vuh

An original page from the Popol Vuh Translation, about 1701

As we discuss the Maya, and the Doomsday Date of 12/21/2012, it makes sense to touch on an important book, the Popul Vuh.

Much of what we know about the Mayan creation theory/myth come to us from this book. When the Spanish invaded the Mayan Kingdoms, many of the Mayan books were burned as a part of the process to convert them to Catholicism.The books were considered pagan in nature, and so tragically destroyed. One book that was destroyed was called the Popul Vuh. It gave the mythistory (yes, that is a word) of the Quiche Kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. It is known that most other Kingdoms shared this book's beliefs. But didn't I say it was destroyed? Yes, it was, but a Quiche convert to Catholicism recreated it in Spanish, and it was transcribed and translated by a Dominican, Francis Ximenez.  .

A literal translation of Popul Vuh is "book of the mat", as the original was made of tree bark. But the general translation is accepted as "Book of the Community or Council". It has the stories of the creation of the world, and of man. Also the story of the "Hero-Twins" Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who play a major role in the creation myth. They were ballplayers, as were their Father,  Hun Hunahpu, and Uncle, Vucub Hunahpu, before them.


The Twins shooting a Bird Deity

Summoned to Xibalba, the Underworld, for playing ball too loudly, (oh shades of my own youth!), by the Lords of the Underworld, the father and uncle were defeated by one of the Lords' tests and sacrificed and Hun Hunahpu's skull was suspended in a trophy tree. When the daughter of one of the lords of Xibalba, approached this tree, the skull spat into her hand and thereby made her pregnant with the Hero Twins. The Twins grew up to avenge their father, and after many trials, finally defeated the lords of the Underworld in a ballgame. The Popol Vuh features other episodes involving the Twins as well (see below), including the liquidation of a pretentious bird demon, Vucub-Caquix, and of his two demonical sons. The Twins also removed their half-brothers from the scene, turning them into Howler Monkeys who were the patrons of artists and scribes. The Twins' final transformation into sun and moon establishes a metaphor for rule over earth and sky.


OK, so who cares? Well as we consider Mayan myths, the Hero Twins come into play again and again, and show how important Ball playing was in Mayan society. And when we discuss the Doomsday Date, the Ball Court plays an important role.

I should also mention that the Popol Vuh gives genealogies of the gods and the eventual rulers of Quiche. Of course many other kingdoms may have had variations in the legends, but based on various stone carvings, we know they were all similar to what we read in the Popul Vuh.

Next Up, The Mayan Cosmos.

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

Interesting article

An interesting article over in USA Today.


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm

J.T. Turner
Mayanist