Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Penner
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Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by Penner »

So, they just found one of those Aztec ball courts in the middle of Mexico City:
The remains of a major Aztec temple and a ceremonial ball court have been discovered in downtown Mexico City, shedding new light on the sacred spaces of the metropolis that Spanish conquerors overran five centuries ago, archaeologists said on Wednesday.

The discoveries were made on a nondescript side street just behind the city's colonial-era Roman Catholic cathedral off the main Zocalo plaza on the grounds of a 1950s-era hotel.

The underground excavations reveal a section of what was the foundation of a massive, circular-shaped temple dedicated to the Aztec wind god Ehecatl and a smaller part of a ritual ball court, confirming accounts of the first Spanish chroniclers to visit the Aztec imperial capital, Tenochtitlan.

"Due to finds like these, we can show actual locations, the positioning and dimensions of each one of the structures first described in the chronicles," said Diego Prieto, head of Mexico's main anthropology and history institute.

Archaeologists also detailed a grisly offering of 32 severed male neck vertebrae discovered in a pile just off the court.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexic ... 5J?rpc=401&


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Speaker to Animals
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by Speaker to Animals »

The game sounded kind of boring, like soccer. The Great Plains tribes had a better game: lacrosse, but with no rules and homicide.
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TheReal_ND
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by TheReal_ND »

I heard about this. It got exceedingly violent. I don't think they ever really got over it because my dad and uncle played football with wagon burners. Hair pulling, punching, I mean you name it. Wagon burners still know how to play ball that's for sure.
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jbird4049
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by jbird4049 »

Speaker to Animals wrote:The game sounded kind of boring, like soccer. The Great Plains tribes had a better game: lacrosse, but with no rules and homicide.
Aside from the fact that one of the teams became human sacrifices?
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
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TheReal_ND
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by TheReal_ND »

lacross or stupid rubber ball? I assure you there is not any """facts"""
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Speaker to Animals
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by Speaker to Animals »

Weird how Aztec rubber ball game is played by nobody, but Lacrosse is a beloved sport across North America..








First nations were geniuses for inventing that game.
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Ex-California
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by Ex-California »

Lacrosse wasn't Plains tribes I thought, it was more in the Southeast like Cherokees
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Penner
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Re: Ancient Aztec Ball Court

Post by Penner »

California wrote:Lacrosse wasn't Plains tribes I thought, it was more in the Southeast like Cherokees
I always thought that Lacrosse's origins belong to the tribes of the northeast?

Edit:

It looks like I am right about Lacrosse belonging to the tribes of the northeast:
Lacrosse has roots in the cultural tradition of the Native American Iroquois people, inhabiting what is now New York, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the Northeastern US and lower parts of Ontario and Quebec. As a result of its origins, it is traditionally a Northeastern US, or "east coast" sport, but in recent years has successfully grown into the South, Midwest, and western parts of America.
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