The Contributions of the Pictographic Manuscripts to the Study of the Ball Game

Abstract

Every pictographic manuscript needs a specific study, in attention to its internal logic, its place of origin and its subject matter. Transversal thematic studies may also yield significant results. Such is the case of the representations of the ball game. In the framework of the present work 157 representations were registered from a total of 58 manuscripts, mainly from the Altiplano. The systematic study of these enabled certain conclusion to be reached concerning the courts’ architecture, meaning and symbolism. Synthetically, four different functions have been defined, although these are not mutually exclusive: the tlachco as game court, as place name, as personal name and with a ritual and symbolic value. All the pictographic representations of ballcourts, although with their specificities according to each manuscript, are situated in the framework of a shared concept of duality, alternation involving sea-sons in the life and vegetation cycles.