The other major candidate is the Olmec heartland, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec along the Gulf Coast. Here, at Paso de la Amada, archaeologists have found the oldest ballcourt yet discovered, dated to approximately 1400 BC. One candidate for the birthplace of the ballgame is the Soconusco coastal lowlands along the Pacific Ocean. It is not known precisely when or where the Mesoamerican ballgame originated, although it is likely that it originated earlier than 2000 BC in the low-lying tropical zones home to the rubber tree. Origins Map showing sites where early ballcourts, balls, or figurines have been recovered In modern Spanish, it is called juego de pelota maya ('Maya ballgame'), juego de pelota mesoamericano ('Mesoamerican ballgame'), or simply pelota maya ('Maya ball'). In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, it was called ōllamaliztli ( ) or tlachtli ( ). This term originates from a 1932 article by Danish archaeologist Frans Blom, who adapted it from the Yucatec Maya word pokolpok. In English, it is often called pok-ta-pok (or pok-a-tok).
The Mesoamerican ballgame is known by a wide variety of names. These ballcourts vary considerably in size, but all have long narrow alleys with slanted side-walls against which the balls could bounce in. Pre-Columbian ballcourts have been found throughout Mesoamerica, as for example at Copán, as far south as modern Nicaragua, and possibly as far north as what is now the U.S. The sport was also played casually for recreation by children and may have been played by women as well. Late in the history of the game, some cultures occasionally seem to have combined competitions with religious human sacrifice. The Mesoamerican ballgame had important ritual aspects, and major formal ballgames were held as ritual events. The ball was made of solid rubber its size differed greatly over time or according to the version of the game, but it could weigh as much as four kilograms (8.8 lb).
In the most common theory of the game, the players struck the ball with their hips, although some versions allowed the use of forearms, rackets, bats, or handstones. The stone ballcourt goals are a late addition to the game.
The rules of the Mesoamerican ballgame are not known, but judging from its descendant, ulama, they were probably similar to racquetball, where the aim is to keep the ball in play. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modernized version of the game, ulama, is still played by the indigenous populations in some places. The Ollamaliztli ( Nahuatl languages: ōllamalīztli, Nahuatl pronunciation:, Mayan languages: pitz) was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC by the pre-Columbian people of Ancient Mesoamerica. The ball in front of the goal during a game of pok-ta-pok, 2006
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