[Aztlan] Yokes, Palmas and the Mesoamerican Ballgame

[Justin Kerr]

There are number of figurines, both Maya and Veracruz that shown individuals
wearing yokes. Whether these were stone or wood is very hard to judge.
However at the site of Tikal Rudy Larios filled a depression in a tomb with
plaster and excavated the remnants of a wooden yoke that had been placed in
the tomb. (The report was published in Guatemala.  A similar yoke can be
seen on a figure now in The Princeton Art Museum. In the Precolumbian
Portfolio (http://research.famsi.org/kerrportfolio.html)
Numbers 5117, 5782, 6238, 6353, 7119, 7723 are such examples. It is within
the realm of possibility that stone yokes and palmas as well as hachas were
attached were worn for display prior to play, as well as to be placed in the
tomb. 
Books and articles on the Mesoamerican game are numerous as early as 1961 in
Essays in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, Samuel K. Lothrop and others,
we find; Types of Ball Courts in the Highlands of Guatemala by A. Ledyard
Smith and Ball-game Handstones and Ball-game gloves by Stephan F. De
Borhegyi. The online Famsi bibliography lists 29 articles on Ball game and
15 articles for yokes as early as 1936.
The most common theme on Veracruz stones yokes is the toad as well as
portraits, possibly of players as well as portraits on the ends of the yoke.
Most stone yokes from Guatemala are smaller than their Veracruz counterparts
with very few having any carving at all. See "The Sport of Life and Death,
The Mesoamerican Ballgame" Edited by E. Michael Whittington.
 
An aside, there is no visual evidence, to my knowledge, that any yoke was
placed around the neck of prisoner, swimmer or otherwise.  
Justin