Ballcourt Representations in Quiechapa, Oaxaca, Mexico: Ritual Offering, Fertility, and Life

Abstract

During an archaeological survey in the municipality of San Pedro Mártir Quiechapa, Oaxaca, Mexico, archaeologists from the Proyecto Arqueológico de Quiechapa (PAQuie) encountered and documented a number of carved stone elements. Of particular interest are the 30 representations of ballcourts carved into natural rock outcrops at two sites in the region. This is the highest density in which this type of ballcourt representation occurs throughout Mesoamerica. After their initial discovery, members of PAQuie documented the carved stone ballcourts using structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry, a quick and affordable technique to collect 3D spatial, quantitative, and visual data of stone carvings. In this article, I report on the carved stone ballcourt representations documented in the Quiechapa region and offer some preliminary interpretations. I first provide some description of the broader archaeological context in which the carvings were found. Then I describe the methods used to record the stone carvings, followed by a presentation of the data. Finally, in dialogue with extant literature, I explore some possibilities as to why these carved stone ballcourt representations were created, how they may have been used, and what they may symbolize.

A Paperless and 3D Workflow for Documenting Excavations at Insula I.14, Pompeii, Italy

“…For over a decade, archaeologists have been identifying ways that SfM can be effectively used to enhance documentation in the field. Photogrammetric techniques have proven to be capable and useful in recording excavation (Adam et al 2014;Badillo et al 2020;De Reu et al 2014;Doneus et al 2011;Koenig et al 2017;Matthew et al 2014), survey (Bikoulis et al 2016;Douglass et al 2015;Sapirstein 2016), architecture (Borrero and Stroth 2020), artifacts (Porter et al 2016), skeletal remains (Evin et al 2016;Morgan et al 2019;Ulguim 2017), and petroglyphs (Badillo 2022;Berquist et al 2018;Estes 2022;Roosevelt et al 2015;Zborover et al 2024), among others.…”

Es nuestra tradición: the archaeological implications of an ethnography on a modern ballgame in Oaxaca, Mexico

“…One court lies next to a life-sized, mud-sculpted human figure wearing ballplayer regalia, a small ball in each hand (Winter et al 2014). Over in the Quiechapa region, Badillo (2022) recorded 30 carved ballcourt icons, the largest number found so far in Mesoamerica. These icons represented actual courts and were likely loci for game-related rituals associated with fertility, death, and renovation (Badillo 2022:14–17).…”

“…Over in the Quiechapa region, Badillo (2022) recorded 30 carved ballcourt icons, the largest number found so far in Mesoamerica. These icons represented actual courts and were likely loci for game-related rituals associated with fertility, death, and renovation (Badillo 2022:14–17).…”