The rubber balls of El Manatí
The oldest rubber balls lie in an Olmec sacred bog
Around 1600–1200 BC the Olmecs left offerings in the bog of El Manatí: wooden busts, axes and rubber balls. The muck preserved them remarkably well; the balls are the oldest rubber objects known and were probably used in the Mesoamerican ballgame.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century BC
Did you know
Rubber balls are at least 3,600 years old. The oldest were found in Mexico in the bog of El Manatí, where around 1600 BC the Olmecs cast offerings to the gods along with wooden busts and stone axes. Share →
Football has a 3,400-year-old ancestor, as even FIFA's president has acknowledged. The oldest Mesoamerican ballcourt, at Paso de la Amada in Mexico, dates to about 1400 BC; its solid rubber balls weighed up to 4 kg. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 1600 BC Minoan eruption of Thera — same year
Asia
- c. 1600 BC Founding of the Shang dynasty — same year