mexico/014_anthropology_museum.JPG

The National Museum of Anthropology. The circular stones were used in a game called Tlachtli. "Tlachtli is kind of like basketball. Games similar to basketball have been played all over Mesoamerica by peoples like the Aztec, the Maya, and the Olmec. The object of Tlachtli is to put a ball through a hoop made of stone at one end of a court. But unlike basketball, the players can't use their hands. Also unlike basketball, where the losing team gets nothing worse than trash-talk from the winners, the losers in this game of tlachtli are going to have their heads chopped off after the game. The players are prisoners of war, the enemies of the Aztecs who are hosting the game. The game is a ritual honoring Amapan and Uappatzin, the patron deities of the game of tlachtli, and honoring Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war." from http://www.pslc.ws/macrog/exp/rubber/aepisode/tlachtli.htm

Some researchers think the victors were sacrificed, not the losers. I think that would make for a very slow game.