Just like us, the ancient Maya also enjoyed a good sports game. They had their own ball games and ballcourts. However, their courts weren’t just limited to games and entertainment. A new study reveals that the Maya conducted special rituals to bless their ballcourts. 

A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) has detected four medicinal plants in a soil sample collected from beneath the floor of an ancient Maya ballcourt complex in Campeche, Mexico. 

The plants were identified using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, a technique that allows scientists to find the traces of the DNA an organism sheds in its surroundings. For instance, shed animal skin and fallen leaves carry their source’s genetic material and can be used for eDNA analysis. 

“Plants identified include Ipomoea corymbosa (xtabentun in Mayan), Capsicum sp. (chili pepper or ic in Mayan), Hampea trilobata (jool), and Oxandra lanceolata (chilcahuite),” the researchers note. 

The study authors suggest that while Maya used jool and chilcahuite to make artifacts involved in religious ceremonies, chili peppers, and xtabentun were connected to divination rituals. Xtabentun is known to have hallucinogenic properties. 

“Whatever the intent of the Maya petitioners, it seems clear that some kind of divination or healing ritual took place at the base of the Helena ballcourt complex during the Late Preclassic period,” the researchers added.

But what kind of rituals?

The Helena ballcourt complex is a part of Yaxnohcah, an ancient Maya city built thousands of years ago. When the Maya constructed a new building, they performed ceremonial offerings and religious rites to receive the blessings of their deities. 

“When they erected a new building, they asked the goodwill of the gods to protect the people inhabiting it. Some people call it an ‘ensouling ritual,’ to get a blessing from and appease the gods,” David Lentz, first author of the study and a paleoecologist at UC, said.

This is somewhat similar to the griha pravesh puja, a ritual Hindus perform to please gods and ward off evil spirits before they enter a new home. However, the Maya also performed the rituals to not only appease the gods but also to show respect to the ancestors who previously inhabited or were buried at the site where the new structure was built.

It is possible that the ballcourt was built atop a residential structure built on bedrock. “Over time, important family members were buried within the expanding platforms, imbuing these places with power. So, in a sense, structures like the Helena Group were thought to be alive or to have souls that needed to be nourished,” Lentz added.

The role of the four plants in Maya rituals

The researchers don’t know what specific religious ritual the Maya performed to bless the Helena complex. However, information from previous studies suggests the possible use of the four plants. For instance, previous studies suggest that Maya used jool to wrap the bundles comprising food and other items offered to the gods. 

On the other hand, chilcahuite or lancewood leaves are antibiotic and anesthetic. So, these leaves might have been a part of the bundle because of their medicinal properties. 

When it comes to chili, Maya believed that chili pepper seeds have the power to keep evil forces away and treat several diseases ranging from skin sores to asthma. 

“Maya shamans and sorcerers used chilis to prevent future illnesses and negative outcomes caused by disharmony with one’s surroundings or for protection against malevolent witchcraft,” the study authors said.

However, this is the first time, xtabentun has been found linked to the Maya. Scientists aren’t sure what purpose this highly effective hallucinogen served during rituals. Possibly, it was used by the Maya priests to invoke deities and guardian spirits. 

They consumed hallucinogenic substances during religious ceremonies as they believed this increased their energy levels and helped them understand the wishes of their deities.

“The consumption of hallucinogenic substances played a vital role in the rituals carried out by Maya kings and high priests because it empowered them to receive the energy of the gods. These acts of divination were essential to the entire ritual system because they enabled the supplicant to understand the wishes of the gods so they might ascertain what kind of subsequent ceremonies should be planned to appease the deities most effectively,” the study authors explained.

Maya ballcourts were blessed but brutal

You may not believe it but some of the ballgames (not all) hosted in Maya ballcourts were far more intense than any modern-day soccer and basketball events. For instance, Maya murals and paintings reveal that games associated with religious rituals ended with human sacrifice. In these, the captain of the winning team decapitated the leader of the losing team. 

The Maya ball game, known as Pitz, was a ritualistic sport with deep cultural and religious significance, played throughout Maya civilization from as early as 1400 BCE. Teams of players would strive to propel a heavy rubber ball through stone hoops positioned high on the walls of the I-shaped ball court. But they would do this using only their hips, thighs, or upper arms. The game was highly challenging and physically demanding, often linked to themes of fertility, warfare, and the cosmic struggle between life and death, as depicted in various Maya artwork.

There could be many other aspects of Maya ballcourts that are still unknown to us. Hopefully, future studies will reveal more details about such rituals and practices.

“On a final note, as with the ceremonial plants found at Yaxnohcah, a greater understanding of the ritual and other sacred practices of ancient cultures can now come into clearer focus with the assistance of eDNA evidence, a methodology whose promise for archaeology is only beginning to be explored,” the researchers said.

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.