Archaeologists uncover distinctive mosaic Patolli board in Guatemala, redefining historical Maya gaming traditions

Excavations on the historical Maya metropolis of Naachtun, in northern Guatemala, have yielded a one-of-a-kind artifact: a patolli gameboard that, as a substitute of being made by carving into plaster as all different identified examples have been, was created by inlaying tons of of purple ceramic fragments into contemporary mortar like a mosaic. The discover, revealed by Julien Hiquet and Rémi Méreuze of the French CNRS in Latin American Antiquity (2025), throws new gentle on how the Maya included video games into their architectural areas and every day life.

Naachtun was a robust Classic interval (ca. CE 250–900) metropolis located between Tikal and Calakmul. Excavations in one among its grand residential compounds, Group 6L13, uncovered the mosaic board embedded within the flooring of Structure 6L-19. The surrounding structure signifies that this constructing as soon as belonged to a rich or influential family, maybe even to an area administrative middle.

The board, discovered beneath later building and partly obscured by a wall, clearly predates the room’s closing part. Unlike the roughly scratched patolli boards documented elsewhere throughout the Maya lowlands, this one was constructed deliberately into the flooring, indicating that it was a part of the construction’s authentic design.

The patolli consists of tiny tesserae—1–3 cm sherds of purple and orange pottery—set in an oblong structure crossed by a central axis, the standard Mesoamerican board sample. A digitized reconstruction reveals that the board most likely measured about 80 × 110 cm, with near 478 tesserae organized in some 45 squares. Many fragments got here from worn family vessels, together with Early Classic sorts comparable to Dos Hermanos Red and Aguila Orange.

The purple coloring could have been as symbolic because it was sensible: in Maya cosmology, purple is related to the east, a course linked to rebirth and the rising solar. Indeed, some students counsel that patolli boards typically seem within the japanese sectors of Maya compounds—an alignment echoed at Naachtun.

Patolli is a sport identified from later Central Mexican sources however was extensively performed throughout Mesoamerica; among the many Maya, it had each entertaining and ritual that means. Carved examples on palace benches and temple flooring, comparable to at Seibal, Uxmal, and Xunantunich, counsel it was performed by elites in social or ceremonial contexts. Its cosmological symbolism linked its gamers by means of play to the motion of the heavens, but it was most likely additionally used as recreation, a standard pastime that bolstered neighborhood bonds.

The embedded design of the Naachtun board implies an set up that was deliberate and long-term, somewhat than informal graffiti or a short-lived pastime. By embedding it into the structure itself, the builders deliberate it to outlast generations, maybe serving each social and religious features.

This artifact is doubly distinctive as a result of flooring mosaics are practically unknown in historical Maya structure. Making the board entailed gathering tons of of small, uniformly coloured fragments and painstakingly embedding them in plaster, way more time-consuming than the comparatively fast incising of most boards.

Because it was constructed right into a newly laid flooring, archaeologists can confidently hyperlink the creation of the gameboard to a selected building part, which roughly dates to the fifth century CE. This safe context makes it one of many earliest identified Maya examples.

The Naachtun discovery expands our understanding of how video games have been built-in into Maya life and structure. It reveals that patolli boards could possibly be deliberate as enduring options somewhat than informal additions, hinting on the social significance of gaming in Classic Maya society.

Future excavations at Structures 6L-19 and 6L-20 will set up whether or not the realm was roofed or open, which can reveal extra in regards to the setting wherein this intricate board as soon as hosted its gamers.