Highly developed written language & Large pyramids, temples, and carved stone monuments.
             Elaborate funeral practices & Societies ruled by aristocratic nobility
             Yucatan Peninsula has the largest known ball court.
             "Ballplayer" was among the ceremonial titles of Maya kings.
             First widespread art style & Mesoamerica's mother culture
             Settled village life; rise of an elite class
             Pronounced Ole Mek...1st earliest artistic representations of ballplayers and archaeological evidence of ballgame equipment...Rare ball: earliest rubber ball recovered from the site of el manati
             The Mesoamericans discovered how to make a very bouncy ball out of a native plant. This plant is the rubber tree. Early tools were probably made of sharp bone or wood. The channels allow the raw liquid rubber, latex, to flow down the vertical container and into a container. The juice of the Morning Glory vine is added to the latex to give the ball its extraordinary bounce. Some balls had human skulls at the core. The size of the balls varied form location to location. Some were the size of softballs some were larger than a beach ball.
             The uniform that the players had to wear had to protect the player but also allow for quick movement. Most of the uniforms had headgear, a sash, or a belt.
             The court was shaped like a capital letter "I", built of cut stone, and painted with bright colors. It was a symbol of a city's wealth and power.
             The game wasn't only a sporting competition; it was based on religious beliefs also. The outcome affected the lives of everyone playing and watching. The ballgame was the first organized game in the history of sports.
             Yuguitos are among the earliest pieces of ballgame equipment. They
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