An ancient stone marker used in a soccer-like ballgame was unearthed this week at the Chichén Itzá archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

The game is mentioned in records across Mesoamerican cultures and was known as pok-ta-pok to speakers of the Mayan language. In it, players bumped a heavy ball (weighing 8 to 12 pounds) off their ...

A stone scoreboard used in an ancient soccer-like ball game has been discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, archaeologists said this week.

(non-Flash version) View a clickable map of the ancient Maya empire, from Chichen Itza in the north to Copan in the south.

Discover all about the Maya ball game pitz and find out why it was so important to the Maya in this year 3/4 BBC Bitesize primary history guide.

The ball games we play today are much less deadly, but there are still some similarities. For example, the Maya players had to work together as a team, usually consisting of between 2-6 players.

Criterion (i) : The monuments of Chichen-Itza, particularly in the northern group, which includes the Great Ball Court, the Temple of Kukulkan and the Temple of the Warriors, are among the undisputed ...