A creepy Mayan ballgame that turned dead people into the insides of rubber balls has fascinated researchers.
“The ballgame”, as scholars call it, is thought to be one of the most important religious and cultural aspects of Mayan society, which began shortly after the start of the last millennium around 250 AD.
Although the rules of the game aren’t known, scholars know that the game was played by two opposing teams on court shaped like the letter ‘I’, with a rubber ball, and is thought to have been a violent game, the Daily Beast reports.
Players would wear protective gear to prevent injury, especially as the game was played between stone walls, and some have even theorised the losers of the game were sacrificed at the end – although most researchers don’t believe this was an integral, or even common, part of the game.
