Unfortunately for the Olmec, they never got around to inventing the inflatable ball, so those balls were solid rubber and could weigh several pounds. I imagine that raised the stakes a scoche.
The big sporting event they played was something like basketball, but the “hoop” was vertical rather than horizontal. I don’t think they could use their hands, so imagine trying to play basketball without using your hands like soccer, and with a heavy ball. I hear the stakes were very high for the winner and loser, involving sacrifice like most mesoamerican rituals during that period.
The balls are stored in the bogs
holy shit I had no idea rubber could be that old
archaeologists 5,000 years from now are going to find so many fucking tires
Bogs can preserve things indefinitely in some cases. They’re wetlands that are acidic, often anerobic/have no oxygen in the water, and are saturated with tannins from decaying plant matter. In the right conditions they can preserve some kinds of organic materials for millenia. The bog bodies of northern Europe and Ireland are the most famous examples, but all sorts of things are found in bogs.
Balls: older than you might think
