The Death Relic

55

Chichén Itzá was a major economic power during its heyday. As such, it was the focal point of a major trade route that brought unavailable resources — such as gold from Central America and obsidian from the west — into the region. But outsiders brought more than commerce inside the city’s walls. They also brought ideas for the city’s design. Unlike many ‘pure’ Mayan cities in Mesoamerica, Chichén Itzá is a mixture of several architectural styles, including the Puuc style found in the northern lowlands and the Toltec style of central Mexico.

The buildings themselves are grouped in a series of architectural sets, which were separated at one time by a succession of low walls. Most of the stone walls are no longer there, but the sets still remain, spread throughout the city like tiny suburbs. The most famous area is called the Great North Platform. It includes El Castillo, the Temple of the Warriors, the Platform of Venus and a grass field that caught Payne’s eye: the Great Ball Court.

Temporarily distracted from his search, Payne walked over to Ulster, who was showing Tiffany’s photo to a group of tourists. ‘Do you have a minute?’

Ulster nodded. ‘Of course, my boy. Of course!’

‘I know I just chastized you for your lecture about the Aztecs, but …’

‘Yes?’

Payne pointed at the field. ‘Is that what I think it is?’

Ulster grinned with delight. ‘I am so happy you asked. Knowing your background in sports, I was dying to tell you about it, but I heeded your warning and focused on the task at hand.’

Payne shrugged. ‘After all of our adventures together — talking about art, religion and whatever — this is finally something I care about. Therefore, I’m officially calling timeout with regard to the search. Please tell me about the field.’

‘With pleasure,’ he said as they walked towards the playing court. ‘Known as the Mesoamerican ball game, the sport can be traced to fifteen hundred years before Christ. The first fields were discovered—’

Payne cut him off. ‘Hold up! I’m stopping you right there. Do not ruin this moment for me. For the first time in our history, we finally get to talk about sports. I don’t care about its origins, or its symbolism, or anything else that would fill a university lecture. Just give me the basics. The ball. The rules. The players. Nothing else matters. That’s the beauty of sports.’

Ulster scratched his beard in thought. ‘Just the basics?’

‘Yes. Just the basics.’

‘I don’t know if I can talk like that.’

Payne smiled. ‘Try.’

Ulster gathered his thoughts as he stared at the field. Measuring 545 feet wide by 223 feet long, it was the largest ball court in ancient Mesoamerica. Two stone walls, nearly 39 feet in height, ran the entire length of the end zones. High in the middle of each wall was a stone ring, carved with intertwining serpents. ‘Let’s start with the field.’

‘Great.’

‘Unlike some modern sports, the dimensions of the field varied from place to place. This one is by far the largest ever discovered, more than five times as large as some other courts. However, some things remained constant. There were high walls on both ends with rings in the middle. And the object of the game was to get the ball through the hole.’

‘Like basketball.’

‘Yes and no. Instead of scoring through the top of a hoop, the ring was turned on its side, allowing players to shoot through the left or the right. Points were accumulated by a team for accomplishing certain feats, such as hitting the opponent’s wall or hitting the ring itself. Ultimately, though, the goal was to get the ball through the hole. If that occurred, the shooting team automatically won the game.’

Payne walked towards the left wall and stared at the ring. With an approximate diameter of a basketball hoop, it was more than 20 feet high in the air. ‘One goal and the game was over? That sounds pretty easy to me. Give me ten shots, and I bet I can make one.’

‘Trust me, my boy, it’s harder than it looks. The sport is still played in parts of Mesoamerica, and a typical game lasts for hours. Often no goals are scored.’

‘Hours? How could it last for hours?’

‘Unlike basketball, you can’t use your hands. Players were forced to use their elbows, hips and legs.’

Payne laughed. ‘Yeah, that would do it.’

‘Plus the balls were rather unwieldy.’

‘How so?’

‘They were eight inches in diameter and made of solid rubber. No bladders. No air pumps. No inflation. Solid rubber balls weighing eight to nine pounds each.’

‘That’s like a bowling ball.’

‘A bowling ball that bounced rather high. Of all the inventions the Spanish found in the New World, they were most amazed by the rubber balls. They’d never seen such a thing before.’

‘I guess that says something about the common man. Who cares about the giant pyramid? Tell me more about the bouncy thing. That cracks me up.’

Ulster smiled. ‘Because of the ball’s weight, they wore equipment like American football players. Helmets, arm pads, knee pads and so on. The sport was so brutal that some players died during the game. According to the Spanish, headshots and stomach shots were particularly fatal.’

‘I bet they were.’

‘Of course, fatalities were expected in ceremonial games, particularly at the end of the match. According to some historians, the captain of the winning team was sacrificed to the gods.’

‘Wait! They killed the winner? What kind of incentive was that?’

‘It guaranteed the captain’s place in heaven.’

‘Thank God we didn’t have that tradition at Annapolis. I was the captain of my football and basketball teams. I would have been killed for sure.’

Ulster explained further. ‘This game has been played for more than three thousand years throughout Mesoamerica. Different cultures had different traditions. The Aztecs, for instance, sacrificed captives before their games to honour their gods. Then they killed members of the losing team as food for the gods after the games. Sometimes, due to a scarcity of rubber in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs would use human heads or skulls instead of balls.’

‘That’s disgusting.’

‘The Aztecs had skull racks positioned near their fields. The racks were rows of pointed sticks where the heads of the losing team would be placed after the game. Obviously, the sticks are long gone, but I’ve seen some particularly gruesome artwork depicting the practice.’ Ulster glanced at the wall, searching for something. ‘I believe the Maya had some grisly carvings somewhere near this court. If you like, I can try to find them.’

‘No thanks. I’ve seen plenty of dead guys in my lifetime.’

Ulster nodded. ‘I guess you have.’

Payne pointed at the base of the wall. It was slanted toward his feet at a 45-degree angle. ‘Is this some kind of anchor to hold the wall up?’

‘Architecturally, it might have had that purpose. Athletically, it served as a bench for players who were waiting to enter the game.’

‘I’ll be damned. The Maya had benchwarmers.’

‘No,’ he said, ‘I don’t believe the benches were heated. However, thanks to the direction of the midday sun—’

Payne cut him off. ‘Benchwarmers is a sports term. It means backups. Substitutes. Second-teamers. They aren’t on the field, so their job is to warm the bench with their butts.’

Ulster laughed. ‘What a strange-yet-accurate word! I’ll be sure to remember it. I thought I would be the only one imparting knowledge during this conversation, yet you’ve managed to teach me a colourful new term. Somehow I feel a tad smarter.’

‘As do I. Thanks for explaining the game to me.’

He threw his arm around Payne’s shoulder. ‘This is why we make such a wonderful team. I supply the academics, and you supply—’

‘Everything else.’

While Payne and Ulster searched for the redhead near the ball court, Jones and Maria focused on the buildings of the Central Group.

To reach that area of the site, they walked along a raised path known as a sacbe (plural sacbeob). The term — meaning ‘white road’ in Yucatec Mayan — was used to describe the paved roads that were built by the Maya. White from the limestone stucco that coated the roadways, more than a hundred sacbeob were discovered in Chichén Itzá alone. Not only did they connect different zones inside the site, they also fanned out to other cities in the region.

After a five-minute walk through a thick forest, they emerged in a large clearing that was shaped like a right parenthesis. Grass and dirt filled the area in between the stone buildings, which started in the north and arched along the clearing towards the south. Of all the structures in the Central Group, the one that caught their eye was the Mayan observatory.

Nicknamed ‘the snail’ because of the spiral staircase inside the domed tower, El Caracol was built high above the surrounding vegetation in the early tenth century. Windows were angled with such precision that sightlines for more than twenty astronomical events, including solstices, equinoxes, solar and lunar eclipses and the cycles of Venus, were discovered in the structure.

Marvelling at the architecture, Jones and Maria strolled towards one of the stone staircases, where a young tour guide was finishing up a brief history of its construction.

‘Thanks to the archaeologists at INAH, we are learning more and more about Chichén Itzá every single day,’ the tour guide explained. ‘One of the things we know with some certainty is the completion date of this building. According to a carving on the upper platform, this observatory was built in 906 AD. That is the end of the Late Classic period of Mesoamerican cultures.’

He paused for a moment, waiting for a question, then pointed at a ruin to the south. ‘Next we are heading to a stone temple called La Iglesia. That is Spanish for “The Church”.’

The tour group, which looked bored out of their minds, turned like zombies and started trudging in that direction. Jones hustled to show them a photo of the redhead. Meanwhile, Maria used the opportunity to grab the tour guide’s arm.

‘Excuse me,’ she said politely. ‘May I ask you a question?’

He nodded excitedly. ‘Thank goodness! My first one of the day. I’m glad someone’s awake. I was beginning to feel like a high-school teacher.’

‘Actually, I’m not technically in your group.’

He laughed. ‘That’s fine with me. I’m not technically a tour guide. I’m just filling in for a friend who’s sick.’

‘Well, it sounds like you know your stuff.’

‘I’m getting there. I still have a lot to learn, though.’

‘You’re a student?’

He nodded. ‘Archaeology. I’m working with INAH for the semester.’

‘INAH? I heard you mention that. What does that stand for?’

‘Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.’

‘Which is …?’

‘A government bureau that protects and preserves the historical sites in Mexico. We’re currently overseeing the archaeologists who are excavating Old Chichén.’

She furrowed her brow. ‘Old Chichén? What’s that?’

He laughed. ‘I thought you had one question.’

‘Sorry. If you have to go, I completely understand. It’s just, well, I’m an archaeologist myself, so I’m kind of excited to learn more about this place.’

‘I bet you are. Chichén Itzá is a wonderful site, filled with all kinds of historical mysteries. Are you here alone? I’d be happy to show you around.’

She shook her head and pointed at Jones. ‘I’m actually here with him. We were supposed to meet a friend of a friend, but we can’t find her anywhere. Maybe you’ve seen her.’

‘Maybe I have. What does she look like?’

She pulled out her phone. ‘Actually, I have a picture of her.’

‘Wow! You’re prepared.’

‘Let that be a lesson to you. Archaeologists are always prepared.’

He smiled and glanced at the screen. ‘Hey, I have seen her. That’s Red. She got here last night.’

‘You know her?’

‘Not personally, but I saw her last night. Everyone called her Red.’

‘You saw her here?’

‘Not here. At the campground by Old Chichén. That’s where some of the archaeologists are staying. It’s much cheaper than a hotel room.’ He laughed at himself. ‘Look who I’m telling? I bet you’re staying in a tent yourself. Am I right?’

‘Something like that,’ she lied. ‘So, how do I get to Old Chichén?’

He pointed at a narrow path that led through the forest to the south. ‘It’s a long hike through the jungle. I hope you’ve got water and insect repellent.’

She patted her backpack. ‘Like I said, archaeologists are always prepared.’