The Mesoamerican ball game, called pok-a-tok, often resulted in the death of the players involved in the game. In some cases, the winning team members cut the heads off the losing team members (or vice versa). The heads were pierced by wooden beams horizontally through the skull and displayed on tzompantlis, or skull racks, which ran along the walls of the ball courts.

The Maya believed that the skull was the repository for the human soul. The heads were therefore not only battle trophies, but perhaps also sources of supernatural power. Representations of tzompantlis are often carved onto stelae, or in friezes along the ball courts.

© SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology    |    All rights reserved    |    Credits