Statue of ancient athlete found in Mexico
By CNN Mexico Staff
Read this story in Spanish at CNNMéxico.com
A granite statue that could be more than 1,000 years old, carved with the effigy of a Mesoamerican ball player, has been discovered in the Mexican state of Guerrero, the country's National Institute of Anthropology and History said.
The statue was found a few weeks ago when residents of Ometepec, a municipality southwest of Mexico City, were installing pipes to transport water to the archaeological zone of Piedra Labrada, according the institute.
Pablo Sereno Uribe, the archaeologist in charge of the research, explained that the statue "is the representation of a decapitated ball game player. He has his arms crossed over his chest, and the legs are slightly curved. Accessories such as a helmet, a yoke close to his waist and round stones or 'chalchihuites' in the ears were observed.”
The statue, which was found cut in two parts, is 5.41 feet long and has a width of 19.68 inches, and it’s believed to be Mixteca (from the Mixteca Region, in the state of Oaxaca). According to Sereno Uribe, the statue belongs to the Mesoamerican classic period.
Researchers believe the statue was created as part of the landscape and was "decapitated" and buried during a ritual carried out in pre-Hispanic times, according to investigators. Based on the antiquity of the area, with its Mixteca-style sculptures and how the plazas are distributed, perhaps the statue was created in A.D. 600, but more research is needed, Sereno Uribe said.
Sereno Uribe added that a proposal would be presented to the National Institute of Anthropology and History Council of Archaeology to excavate the area in order to find ceramics. That would help the investigators find out more about the origins of the statue, which currently is being protected at a local police station.
Piedra Labrada has an expanse of 2 square kilometers (less than one mile), and since 2011 investigators have been mapping the area to learn about its characteristics, the size of the constructions, how the town squares were divided and which sculptural materials are in the area.
The zone had about 50 buildings of about 9 to 16 feet tall on top of various platforms, five ball fields and more than 20 sculptures of several sizes. The sculptures depict such things as snakes, snails and humans.
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I heard he was probably gay.
I agree. Most athletes and people that believe in science are gay. Lesbean gay.
"The statue is 5.41 feet long and has a width of 19.68 inches"
Now, this is the kind of very accurate information that we all really need...down to the hundreds of an inch, very impressive.
Me , I just would have said more than 5 feet tall and about a foot and a half wide.
Why does everything have to be ritualistic in archeology??? How about the statue was broken accidentaly, so they dumped the pieces...
Cutting leaves traces on stone that are different from breaking – typically parallel striations and relatively smooth surfaces.
Is that Dennis Rodman?
It's "pre-Columbian", not "pre-Hispanic".
That wouldn't be PC enough, I suspect.
Out moded speak, what they are referring to is the Hispanic conquest of the Americas.
One would think if they were trying to portray a ball player in this statue, there would have carved a ball somewhere.
Decapitated – that's what happened back then when you gave up the winning run.
The WINNER of these events were sacrificed to the Gods, stone ruins all over Central America depict the glory of winners, all sacrificed in the name of religion.
Then, as now, the ignorance called religion caused unnecessary pain, death and suffering. Religion kills.
This past summer I had the joy of watching a thousands year old game played by the Woodlands native Americans – re-enacted by a tribal member – directing kids as the athletes at Fort Mackinac State Park in Mackinac, Michigan. If you get the chance I strongly urge you to take the fascinating tour. The ball game was actually fairly brutal and was used to ensure that the warriors could compete on the battlefield and win. The kids did a fairly decent job – and had a lot of fun. It was a memory for them – a life memory. But I wondered – and I do believe I asked the man – whether Mesozoic era peoples might have played similar games. And he responded that there were many similarities for many reasons. The ancient peoples of Mexico and the Woodlands people of Michigan probably had many things in common – with incredible variations in terms of cultural context. But the basic human needs in peace and war during that period would have been similar in nature.
Look at the lips. Guess they had all the great athletes back then too.
you're a racist, go to hell
This goes to show that Pre-Hispanic cultural artifacts will always be found, there is bigger, colorful and more detail pieces to be found.
Okay, am I the only person not seeing this? I see a statue. But I think its a far reach to call the hair-do a helmet and the crossed-arms a "yoke."
No, you are not the only person not seeing this....LOL....
Perhaps if you did a small amount of research concerning the Mesoamerican ball game you could avoid making such uninformed comments. There is a huge amount of information available on line that describes both the nature of the game itself as well as the "gear" worn by participants. This is without doubt a statue of a ballplayer.
The problem is the article is garbage. It doesn't explain anything about this "ball game" which is the most fascinating bit of information I wanted to learn about when I clicked this article. This article is just a poor job. Well I'm off to go Google more about this ball game and this culture to get the questions that are now burning in my mind. Thanks for nothing you lousy article.
Would you have looked up anything about this sport or their culture without this article having been posted? It spurred your interest, and know you're taking it upon yourself to learn more about it. That makes it a pretty good article by most definitions.
This is proof that Abner Doubleday did not "invent" baseball.
just to clarify, the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican ball game had nothing in common with baseball, except for the extremely superficial similarity that they both used a kind of ball – except the Mesoamerican game used a non-volcanized rubber ball, quite different from a baseball. If you had to compare the ballgame to some modern game, it would be closer to a mix of soccer and basketball with significant ritualistic/religious overtones.
Damn!! I was hoping the Cubs would sign him!
The player was decapitated because he lost. The Cubs in fact did sign him.
No the player was decapitated because he won and therefore a fitting sacrifice. Imagine your favorite player striving to do his best so he can be sacrificed. May be that is why they thank god when they hit a homer or strike out the last batter in the bottom of the 9th.
No, but he did become eligible to run for congress.
No, the Cubs would have signed him to a six year contract after he lost...
I heard the Yankees signed this broken down,, ,old ball player, and for some reason he's hitting .346 this year, with 7 HR, and 24 RBI. Dang pinstripes.
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Cool story, 1000 years ago huh? Why is this impressive again? we've had statues and figurines of Mesoamerican ball players dating back past 1000BCE for a long time now. This is nothing new or even news worthy.
Shut up, Robert, you pathetic piece of crap.
oh I see you're on of those "internet tough guys" that goes around calling people names. First rule of an argument is once you start calling names you lose because it shows you have nothing more productive to bring to the conversation. So bye.
Ok, no name calling, Robert. Agreed. But why do you get to decide what is newsworthy or interesting and what is not? I think the story is interesting. I'll bet that other people do as well. That you don't is your business, and if you care so little, why bother to comment at all?
Well, the only artifacts fating past 1000 BCE are Olmec and almost nothing is known about them. The Mixtec were at their height from the 11th to the 16th century...about the time this is dated to...fascinating enough...
I see worshipping athletes is a tradition spanning thousands of years. lol.
If they knew better,they would of printed t-shirts with this guy's face on it,or sell copies of that statue to the fans
Statue looks like Obama!
BIG LIPS!
As opposed to your tiny brain
They would HAVE, not "would of", moron.
Michael J., It's pointless, the likes of Oldy and Ed don't understand what you're saying.
you're just an angry little man aren't you?
Lucifer, It's called Tlactli. very violent and I don't recall if it was the winners or losers, but someone was sacrificed to the Gods.
Looks just like Scottie Pippen!
The "ball game" they refer to was the game played by many mesoamerican cultures in ball courts such as those found in Mayan, Mixtec, and Aztec ruins, I've been to a few myself. It involved a rubber ball they propelled with their hips, and made goals through rings on the sides of the court. Sort of a cross between soccer and basketball.
How do square kilometers and miles equate? One is an area and one is a distance. Two square kilometers is about 3/4 of a square mile, so maybe that is what they meant. But is that "an expanse"? Rookie mistake.
These articles are poorly edited. Actually I doubt anyone seriously looks them over. If you want edited copy you'd have to pay more than nothing to subscribe to it.
So, I suspect the author simply left out the word "square" before miles.
I wonder what sort of ball playing they're referring to.... even as a demi-god I'm stumped.
You're a moron.
The Meso-American Ball Game was a complex sport/ritual(possibly involving consumption of DMT by players and spectators, as there was a lot of toad iconography attached to the sport). The game part was played with the hips only,on a multi-tiered T shaped stone paved court and the stone hoop was twenty ft up the side on either end. Loser dies.
so basically it was the most awesome sport in the history of mankind?
No, look it up. The WINNERS had the honor of being sacrificed to the Gods in a ritual designed to maximize the blood spatter, which the ignorant priests thought would make the land more fertile. Once again, religion kills.