-1000s.1
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Thirty Century-Old Leather-Covered Hardballs Found
| Salience | Noteworthy |
|---|---|
| Tags | The BallThe Ball |
| Location | |
| City/State/Country: | Yanghai, China |
| Modern Address | |
| Game | Polo, possibly?Polo, possibly? |
| Immediacy of Report | Retrospective |
| Age of Players | AdultAdult |
| Holiday | |
| Notables | |
| Text | In an excavation of burial grounds in 1970, "a leather ball, around the size of a human fist" turned up. That ball, and two others found in the area, have been dated as a little over 3000 years ago. "The results were published in the open-access Journal of Archeological Science: Reports. "'We can now confirm that these three leather balls from Yanghai are the oldest leather balls in Eurasia,' says Patrick Wertmann, an archeologist at the University of Zurich and lead author of the recent study. "'They were life tools, used for play or useful training.'" "The balls -- which are stuffed with wool and hair, wrapped in treated rawhide . . . are no joke. 'They're actually really hard,' Wertmann says. 'You could compare these leather balls from Yanghai with modern baseballs'"
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| Sources | "Leather Balls and 3,000-Year-Old Pants Hint at a Ancient Asian Sport." See https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-ancient-balls-xinjiang. Accessed 11/25/2020 via search of <Balls Yanghai Tombs>. Patrick Wertmann,et al;, "New evidence for ball games in Eurasia from ca. 3000-year-old Yanghai tombs in the Turfan depression of Northwest China." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep) Supplemental Text, below, for the |
| Warning | |
| Comment | "More recent art from elsewhere in China shows polo-like games being played on horseback with sticks" evidence for ball games in Eurasia from ca. 3000-year-old Yanghai tombs in the Turfan depression of Northwest China Patrick Wertmanna,⁎, "'We cannot determine based on current evidence that these balls can be linked with polo,' says Jeffrey Blomster, an archeologist at George Washington University . . . 'the fact that all three are nearly the same size suggests a similar use for all three.'" For comments on the game played with these balls see Supplemental Text, below.
[] For information on balls found from even earlier times, in Egyptian tombs from 2600 BCE, see -2600c.1
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| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| External Number | |
| Submitted by | Mark Schoenberg, John Thorn |
| Submission Note | Emails of 11/23/2020 |
| Has Supplemental Text |
-1000s.1 Thirty Century-Old Leather-Covered Hardballs Found"
Comments
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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep
Patrick Wertmann, et al. "New Evidence for Ball Games in Eurasia from ca. 3000-Year-Old Yanghai Tombs in the Turfan Depression of Northwest China,"
The researchers found specimens of curved sticks at the same burial sites. Their thought about the game that may have used the balls:
"The approved old age of the Yanghai balls in combination with horse-riding equipment and curved wooden sticks, reported from the same archaeological site got scientific and public attention and raised a discussion on whether these finds could be the oldest evidence for stick- and-ball games such as polo in China and Eurasia. Our study supports the antiquity of the Yanghai balls, but the available data in hand is not enough to answer the question of how these balls were played."