April
12
/ 2023
A commemorative disc carved in stone and featuring images of contestants in a Maya sporting event was recently unearthed at the Chichén Itzá archaeological site in southern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. Two individuals are portrayed, and each is wearing a traditional outfit associated with an ancient Maya ball game known as pelota, the Spanish word for “ball”. There is a fairly detailed inscription on the disc, which has yet to be completely deciphered. However, the archaeologists who found it did decode a notation in the inscription that claims the players depicted were participants in a ball game that occurred in the year 894. They are hopeful that further translation of the inscription will reveal more details about this ninth-century
