YOKE

Yoke in stone, worn during the ancient ballgame of the Meso-American culture, Veracruz (Mexico)
500-900 a.D.
40 x 35 x 10 cm
An export license is available for this lot
Provenance: Sotheby’s, New York, 22.11.1993, Lot. 124. References: Metropolitan Museum (New York), National Museum of Aamerican Indian (Washington, Dc), M.H. De Young Memorial Museum (San Francisco), Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico City). Analyzing the yolk’s etchings it is possible to identify at each end a warrior with jutting eyes, earrings and headgear. His words are projecting from his mouth as if they were an unrolling parchment. The yoke has fine glyptics with geometrical patterns of varying depth. In the Meso-American culture, ball players were identified by the thick belts worn around their waists. The belt was described as a yoke, the name of which came from the similarity to the equipment used in agriculture. The belt itself was probably made of wood, straw and leather. Due to the perishableness of these materials, none have survived. Nevertheless there were retrieved some rare specimens in stone such as the one in question. As their weight was considerable, we can assume that these stone-yokes were kept for the ceremonies associated with the games. The ball game was a ritual deeply rooted in the Meso-American culture. Furthermore, it was rich in meanings that went far beyond a simple sport event. The game was actually a way to solve conflicts without resorting to a true armed fight. Its aim was to smooth away all possible quarrels by means of a match instead of by war. As time went by, the role of the game progressed to include solutions of conflicts inside the society itself. The most important games were considered genuine religious rites, and as such they often required human sacrifices. Even when a sacrifice was unnecessary, the matches were rather violent, the hard and heavy rubber balls often causing serious injuries. Spanish sources dating back to XVI Century relate how some players were either killed or severely injured at their most vulnerable body points. In the Veracruz culture explicit representations of human sacrifices during the games are made evident. For example, in the relief panels of the courts at El Tajin. Often the selected victim was the captain of the winning team. It was believed that being sacrificed was the beginning of a course to becoming a Divinity. Some experts propose that decapitated heads or skulls could have been used in the games instead of rubber balls, in this manner to reliving the Popol Vuh’s legend. According to the tradition, the Sun God Popul Vuh was beheaded by wicked grandparents (Gods of Death) who used his head as a ball, although at the end of the tale he took back his head and returned to life. It was believed that the bouncing ball represented the sun and that the player’s sacrifice would enact the death of the sun and the prelude of its rebirth. In its inner duality, the game appears as fight between day and night, symbolic of a fight between life and the subterranean world. The rings of stone through which the ball was required to pass, created the representation of the sun at dawn, sunset, or the equinox. The courts themselves were considered doors to the beyond and were placed in key-sites of the ceremonial district. Practising the ball game, linked each of the participants to the maintenance of the cosmic order and to the ritual regeneration of life. It was a game of luck, ability and tricks, mirroring the game of life. The effort of the whole team involved each individual sharing knowledge and culture, strengthening and reinventing the game of life and the people’s role inside the cosmic order. The yoke offered here is an exceptional symbol of a practice full of extraordinary meanings which influenced Meso-American people’s lives from time immemorial.