ABSTRACT

Thousands of ballcourts are known throughout Mesoamerica, as they are usually a main component of public architecture at mostly high-ranking archaeological sites. These buildings appear in different designs and layouts and were deeply tied to politics, religion, sacred belief, ritual, ceremonies, and sport. Considering that the construction of public buildings followed well-established architectural standards in accordance with social norms and religious concepts, I hypothesize that ballcourts were designed using closed polygon layouts with lengths and areas that displayed significant worldview numbers and time counts. Analysis of the layouts of 28 ballcourts from 17 archaeological sites indicates that Mesoamericans intentionally plotted short- and long-term annual and ritual calendric counts, and lunar and Venus synodic cycles. It is concluded that these buildings hosted public events to commemorate the completion or beginning of a new time cycle and to honor the related deities for whom they were built.

摘要

中美洲有数以千计的球场，因为它们通常是大多数高级考古遗址公共建筑的主要组成部分。这些建筑以不同的设计和布局出现，并与政治、宗教、神圣信仰、仪式、庆典和体育紧密相关。考虑到公共建筑的建造遵循符合社会规范和宗教观念的既定建筑标准，我假设球场是使用封闭多边形布局设计的，其长度和面积显示出重要的世界观数字和时间计数。对来自 17 个考古遗址的 28 个球场布局的分析表明，中美洲人有意绘制了短期和长期的年度和仪式日历计数，以及月球和金星的会合周期。