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The Deep Prehistory of Indian Gaming: Possible Late Archaic Period Game Boards at the Tlacuachero Shellmound, Chiapas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barbara Voorhies
Barbara Voorhies*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210 (voorhies@anth.ucsb.edu)
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Abstract

Ten or more features, each consisting originally of an open circle formed by a series of small holes, are present on two Late Archaic superimposed prepared floors at a shellmound on the outer coast of Chiapas, Mexico. These puzzling features bear a strong resemblance to ethnographic and ethnohistoric scoreboards used in indigenous dice games. Accordingly, the approximately 5,000 year-old features also were most likely game boards. Archaeologists have traced other Mesoamerican games into deep prehistory, including rubber ball games and another dice game known in Aztec times as patolli. These data provide evidence for the cultural importance and longevity of gaming in Mesoamerica.

Los diez o más elementos arqueológicos encontrados en dos pisos preparados y superpuestos en un conchai del Arcaico Tardío en la costa de Chiapas, México, consistían originalmente de anillos abiertos formados por una serie de pequeños agujeros. Dichos elementos se parecen mucho a tableros etnográficos y etnohistóricos de juegos de dados utilizados por sociedades indígenas. Por lo tanto, es probable que estos tableros de hace casi 5,000 años hayan usado también para juegos de dados. Los arqueólogos han detectado evidencia de otros juegos en la antigüedad, incluyendo juegos de pelota de hule y un juego de dados conocido por los aztecas como patolli. Estos datos indican la importancia cultural y la longevidad de los juegos en Mesoamérica.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 98 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2013

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References

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