Mesoamerican rubber balls

Ancient Mesoamericans were the first people to invent rubber balls (Nahuatl languages: ōllamaloni), sometime before 1600 BCE, and used them in a variety of roles.

[1] The latex was made into rubber by mixing it with the juice of what was likely Ipomoea alba (a species of morning glory), a process which preceded Goodyear's vulcanization by several millennia.

[3] Archaeological evidence indicates that rubber was already in use in Mesoamerica by the Early Formative Period – a dozen balls were found in the Olmec El Manati sacrificial bog and dated to roughly 1600 BCE.

Only roughly 100 pre-Columbian rubber artifacts have been recovered, all of which were found in still, freshwater contexts,[9] sites that include El Manati, the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, and the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

[14] Most researchers believe that these depictions are exaggerations,[15] in large part because a solid ball one meter in diameter would be nearly too heavy to move, weighing close to 500 kg (over 1000 lbs).

[16] Nonetheless, Marc Zender of the Peabody Museum has interpreted a common ball-glyph (seen for example on the ball at right) as "handspan", a circumference measurement of roughly 8+1⁄2 inches (22 cm).

A solid rubber ball used (or similar to those used) in the Mesoamerican ballgame , 300 BCE to 250 CE, Kaminaljuyu . The ball is 3 inches (almost 8 cm) in diameter, a size that suggests it was used to play a handball game. Behind the ball is a manopla , or handstone, which was used to strike the ball, 900 BCE to 250 CE, also from Kaminaljuyu.
A Maya limestone staircase riser, ca. 700 - 900 CE. Against the backdrop of a staircase, two nobles play the ballgame with an overly large, perhaps symbolic, ball. The ball itself contains two glyphs, a "14" and an unknown glyph that has been speculatively translated as "handspan". Height: 25.1 cm; length: 43.2 cm.
In this detail from the late 15th century Codex Borgia , the Aztec god Xiuhtecuhtli brings a rubber ball offering to a temple. The rubber balls each hold a quetzal feather, part of the offering.