[Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame

[Justin Kerr]

Gentlemen and Ladies,
The record shows that in the Maya Area (Tikal), wood covered with stucco
served as material for a yoke to be buried with a prominent person. Rudy
Larios filled a depression in a tomb to recover these remnants. On the other
hand the concept of a formed leather yoke is speculation. However there are
a number of individuals who I assume (again speculation) are in engaged is
some athletic activities, who wear flat leather belts. To my knowledge, no
stone yoke has survived that has square holes or any kind of holes for that
matter in the end area, and yet there are images of men wearing such yokes
with the holes used to pass rope or cloth through to tie the yoke into
place. Three ridged yokes (Princeton) on the chest in the Maya area, but do
show up in the Veracruz area at the waist. 
Yes, even though an enormous amount of material has been published, ther is
still more to come.
Justin  

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Archaeology Institute
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 8:18 AM
To: Laughton, Timothy B
Cc: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame

Dear Dr. Laughton, 
	Thank you for your referrence to the British Museum piece in
question. First, I do not believe that the use of greenstone, or for that
matter, jadeite or nephrite, would necessarily preclude the utilitarian use
of such an item for the manufacture
of leather gear. As noted in a number of recent studies of greenstone, such
material may range from basic serpentine to true jadeite. In those regions
where basalt is unavailable, it would be prudent to conclude that
serpentine, a type of
greenstone, was the material of choice.  Second, the Mexicon article of the
1970s concluded that once the leather had been burnished onto the palma or
yugo mould, and dried, the dried and burnished leather element was then
easily pealed away and
reversed so as to expose the detailed pattern lifted directly from the face
of the stone mould. The experimental study in question was quite convincing,
and the extent of that detail reproduced in the experimental study left no
doubt in my mind
about the feasibility of reproducing even the most minute details from a
stone mould.  Again, I do believe that only the meticulous assessment of
archaeological context, and the recovery of in situ specimens, will make the
difference in the ultimate
assessment of how these items were used.  Moreover, the tendency for humans
to engage in fetishism, particularly where the objects of the material world
are concerned, would suggest that even utilitarian items like ballgame belt
moulds and palmate
forms would likely enter into the domain of the sacred...in much the same
way that stone or wood may become the object of veneration and ritual use.


Best Regards,

Ruben G. Mendoza, Ph.D., Director
Institute for Archaeological Science, Technology and Visualization
Social and Behavioral Sciences
California State University Monterey Bay
100 Campus Center
Seaside, California 93955-8001

Email: archaeology.csumb at gmail.edu
Voice: 831-582-3760; Fax: 831-582-3566
http://archaeology.csumb.edu; http://archaeology.csumb.edu/wireless/


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