Games and Ancient Mesoamerica
Ian Mursell
Ilaria Truzzi
Ilaria Truzzi
Doctoral candidate at the University of Reading
CA22145 MC Member
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Thierry Depaulis
All good wishes, Ian (Mursell).<Games collage inc Rubik.jpg>
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Ian Mursell
Hello Ilaria,
Thanks for your message and interest. As you’ll see at the foot of the Mexicolore article you refer to, I researched this back in 2011, so some time ago now. Just now the only reference I can give you is the one mentioned in the piece, full details of which are:-
Piña Chan, Román (1969) Games and Sport in Old Mexico, Edition Leipzig, Leipzig/GDR. There are a couple more paragraphs in his entry on ‘Chichinadas or Globe Games’ (pp. 38-39), where he mentions related games Cocoyocpatolli and Matatena/Mapepeña – you can learn something about these on Wikipedia –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Mexican_handcrafted_toys#cite_note-ftorre96-4
However, we do have another article on Mexicolore written by Professor Barbara Voorhies, called ‘Games and Other Amusements of the Ancient Mesoamericans’, in which she mentions marbles, the source - both of brief textual reference and illustration from 1529 - for which comes from the German artist Christoph Weiditz, who attended the court of Charles V of Spain - Das Trachtenbuch des Christoph Weiditz, Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin & Leipzig, 1927
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/games-and-other-amusements-of-the-ancient-mesoamericans
I hope this may help a little!
All best,
Ian
From: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ilaria Truzzi <ilari...@gmail.com>
Reply to: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 29 October 2025 at 12:34
To: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Games and Ancient Mesoamerica
Hello dear Ian,
Thanks for sharing, this is all very interesting. This project that you are running in schools is very exciting.
I am running a research on marbles in pre-roman tribes in Northern Spain.
I have found this article in your webpage, but was wondering if you have some bibliographic suggestions to share on marbles played in Teotihuacan and in pre-Hispanic Mexico?
Best,
Ilaria Truzzi
Doctoral candidate at the University of Reading
CA22145 MC Member
On Mon, 27 Oct 2025 at 13:13, 'Ian Mursell' via bgs4ever <bgs4...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Greetings all. This is my first posting since I joined the group. I run an educational service/teaching team for schools on ancient Mexico/Mesoamerica based here in the UK ('Mexicolore'). This message is partly for fun, but it does have a serious element too. It appears that a) Lizzie Magie, the creator of The Landlord's Game, was almost certainly inspired initially by seeing the ancient (square) version of a Patolli board, b) the game of marbles was being played at Teotihuacan a millennium ago, and c) who would have thought that the Mixtec people had invented Rubik's Cube around the same time...!
The last bit is for fun, but the ancient Mexican roots of Monopoly I've been studying for years, and in case anyone's interested I uploaded a summary of my research to the Mexicolore website a year ago -
All good wishes, Ian (Mursell).
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Ian Mursell
Thanks for this, Thierry. I hugely respect your own most detailed work in this area – indeed I referenced and praised it in my online summary article. But I beg to differ. I believe scholars and games historians/collectors DID know about the square game board (that you call ‘proto-patolli’) before the end of the 19th century, beginning with William H. Holmes, who published his study ‘Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans’ in the 2nd. Annual Report of the US Bureau of Ethnology in 1883. In Holmes’s original text we find:-
‘The significance of the looped figure which forms so prominent a feature in the designs in question has not been determined… It may be well to point out the fact that a similar looped rectangle occurs several times in the ancient Mexican manuscripts. One example, from the Vienna Codex, is presented in Fig 5, Plate LIX’ (see picture below – arrows added). The footnote source he gives is ‘Kingsborough: vol II, Plate 20’ (1883: 285).
There are a few key individuals in this story one has to mention at this point, in particular Zelia Nuttall and Stewart Culin, whose work I explore in earlier chapters in my online study of this. Nuttall, a leading American archaeologist and anthropologist, way ahead of her time (she was even gifted a set of the Kingsborough Antiquities of Mexico as a child!), was fascinated by ancient Mesoamerican calendars, games and puzzles, and was familiar with Holmes’s work. She, Culin and Frank Hamilton Cushing presented papers on these topics at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 (at which there was a huge games exhibit curated by Culin, that included Patolli), which I am convinced was attended by Lizzie Magie. (I’ll never be able to prove this, as Lizzie’s own personal journal was nobbled by a researcher years ago, but that’s by the by). I urge you to read how this all unfolds on the Mexicolore website, a link to a summary of which I provided in my first email, below. Here’s a link just to the second part of my article on Nuttall, where my points mentioned here should be a lot clearer –
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/inspiration/zelia-nuttall-2
Cheers,
Ian
From: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Thierry Depaulis <thierry....@gmail.com>
Reply to: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 29 October 2025 at 12:52
To: bgs4ever <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Games and Ancient Mesoamerica
Interesting, indeed.
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maur...@origem.com.br
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Subject: Invitation to collaborate on the application for the UNESCO Chair in Traditional Games and Sports
Dear colleagues,
It is a great pleasure to address you. I am Elizara Carolina Marin, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba, and I have the honor of collaborating in the preparation of the application for the creation of a UNESCO Chair in Traditional Games and Sports (JET), promoted by the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), a leading academic institution linked to the University of Barcelona and the University of Lleida, in Spain.
The objective of this Chair is to recognize and promote traditional games and sports as living intangible cultural heritage, highlighting their capacity to act as educational and social resources with extraordinary transformative potential. The proposal seeks to consolidate itself as an international platform for research, training, and cooperation with the following main goals:
Inventory and recognize representative traditional games and sports in different geographical contexts, valuing their cultural diversity and their social and educational contributions, in order to preserve them as living heritage.
Design, implement, and evaluate training programs and research actions that offer solid scientific evidence on the contribution of these games to the construction of more peaceful, inclusive, and egalitarian societies, within the framework of quality physical education.
Strengthen international cooperation, positioning traditional games and sports as catalysts for inclusion, intercultural dialogue, and sustainable development.
The Chair has a global vocation and plans to develop actions in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, promoting research projects, training, and cooperation networks that integrate the cultural richness of each continent.
In this context, we are pleased to invite your organization to evaluate the possibility of collaborating on this application. If you are interested, we would appreciate knowing what types of actions you could be involved in, such as:
Inventory of traditional games and sports in your region.
Conducting simple research, focusing on some of these themes according to your preference: intercultural dialogue, peaceful coexistence, gender equality, social inclusion, sustainability, or conflict transformation.
Training, supporting the organization of in-person and virtual seminars or courses.
Dissemination of results through social media, joint publications, or the production of awareness-raising materials.
Networking, facilitating links with associations or institutions in your area.
If your institution wishes to collaborate, we would be very grateful to receive a letter of support, indicating the areas of activity in which they could intervene. If the application is approved, your organization would be recognized as a partner entity of the UNESCO Chair, which would strengthen the association's international projection and open new opportunities for academic and social cooperation.
Finally, we would be very grateful if you could send your response by November 5th.
With esteem and consideration,
Elizara Carolina Marin
Contributor to the UNESCO Chair in Traditional Games and Sports application
Brazil
Thierry Depaulis
“These games are all similar to the Mexican Patoli [sic], as described by the early Spanish chroniclers. A picture of the latter game from an early Hispano-American manuscript, reproduced from the original in Florence by its discoverer, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, is exhibited in this connection. The method of play among the Aztecs is here shown, and it is curious to note that they used a diagram or board in the form of a cross, like that of the East Indian Pachisi.”
Le 29 oct. 2025 à 19:04, Ian Mursell <Ian.M...@btinternet.com> a écrit :
Thanks for this, Thierry. I hugely respect your own most detailed work in this area – indeed I referenced and praised it in my online summary article. But I beg to differ. I believe scholars and games historians/collectors DID know about the square game board (that you call ‘proto-patolli’) before the end of the 19th century, beginning with William H. Holmes, who published his study ‘Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans’ in the 2nd. Annual Report of the US Bureau of Ethnology in 1883. In Holmes’s original text we find:-
‘The significance of the looped figure which forms so prominent a feature in the designs in question has not been determined… It may be well to point out the fact that a similar looped rectangle occurs several times in the ancient Mexican manuscripts. One example, from the Vienna Codex, is presented in Fig 5, Plate LIX’ (see picture below – arrows added). The footnote source he gives is ‘Kingsborough: vol II, Plate 20’ (1883: 285).There are a few key individuals in this story one has to mention at this point, in particular Zelia Nuttall and Stewart Culin, whose work I explore in earlier chapters in my online study of this. Nuttall, a leading American archaeologist and anthropologist, way ahead of her time (she was even gifted a set of the Kingsborough Antiquities of Mexico as a child!), was fascinated by ancient Mesoamerican calendars, games and puzzles, and was familiar with Holmes’s work. She, Culin and Frank Hamilton Cushing presented papers on these topics at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 (at which there was a huge games exhibit curated by Culin, that included Patolli), which I am convinced was attended by Lizzie Magie. (I’ll never be able to prove this, as Lizzie’s own personal journal was nobbled by a researcher years ago, but that’s by the by). I urge you to read how this all unfolds on the Mexicolore website, a link to a summary of which I provided in my first email, below. Here’s a link just to the second part of my article on Nuttall, where my points mentioned here should be a lot clearer –Cheers,Ian
<image001.jpg>
From: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Thierry Depaulis <thierry....@gmail.com>
Reply to: <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 29 October 2025 at 12:52
To: bgs4ever <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Games and Ancient MesoamericaInteresting, indeed.But be careful: in 1904, when Lizzie Magie, invented The Landlord's Game, no one knew about the "proto-patolli" which is on the left of your image.The earliest finds were made in the mid-20th century. The first article to show and present this game, which was still played in a village of Michoacan, was published in 1944 (Ralph L. Beals, Pedro Carrasco, «Games of the mountain Tarascans», American Anthropologist, 46, 1944, p. 516-522).Therafter, archaeologists started to discover the same design carved in Teotihuacan and many other places of various periods (though not Aztec), and some sharp-eyed scholars realised that the same game was drawn in some pre-Columbian codex. But this was not until the 1970s.Today it has entered the literature, alas dubbed 'patolli' by the archaeologists, although this square game is different from the true (Aztec) cross-shaped 'patolli'.If we want to give it a specific name, we could use the Purépecha (Tarascan) current name: k’uilichi.Both games are well-known today.Thierry DepaulisLe 27 oct. 2025 à 14:13, 'Ian Mursell' via bgs4ever <bgs4...@googlegroups.com> a écrit :Greetings all. This is my first posting since I joined the group. I run an educational service/teaching team for schools on ancient Mexico/Mesoamerica based here in the UK ('Mexicolore'). This message is partly for fun, but it does have a serious element too. It appears that a) Lizzie Magie, the creator of The Landlord's Game, was almost certainly inspired initially by seeing the ancient (square) version of a Patolli board, b) the game of marbles was being played at Teotihuacan a millennium ago, and c) who would have thought that the Mixtec people had invented Rubik's Cube around the same time...!The last bit is for fun, but the ancient Mexican roots of Monopoly I've been studying for years, and in case anyone's interested I uploaded a summary of my research to the Mexicolore website a year ago -All good wishes, Ian (Mursell).<Games collage inc Rubik.jpg>--
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Ian Mursell
Many thanks, Thierry, for all these points.
I feel our conversation so far has focused, perhaps understandably, entirely on games. But what made Zelia Nuttall a star at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE) in 1893 – and was to make her famous by the age of 37 – was her work on calendrical circuits. Her presentation on The Mexican Calendar System at the International Congress of Anthropology, held at the WCE – attended by 250 archaeologists, ethnologists, folklorists, anthropologists, antiquarians and linguists – was a roaring success: ‘Over sixty US newspapers reported on Zelia’s discovery... The New York Times lauded her work, and even readers of papers in small towns… were able to learn about her breakthrough in decoding Aztec time’. Though lost today (long story) we know she presented a wealth of visual material in support of her presentation, some of which she included later in her lengthy work The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations – notice, from the image I paste below, that she reproduced not only the key calendrical circuit from the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer but Holmes’s drawings of grave carvings from Tennessee! What’s more, she wrote the ‘shell-gorget exhibits the peculiarity, pointed out by Mr. Holmes, of a square with loops, resembling certain figures in Mexican Codices’ (emphasis added). Parallels were already being drawn at the time between ancient Mexican and Asian board games, and their basis in divination; as Frank Cushing wrote ‘All games derived from such [divinatory] use by natural step, were played with reference to the four quarters, and were thus invariably developed along identical lines as to rules, formulae, counts etc., leading up gradually to even such elaborate dice- and diagram-games as the hitherto, mysterious Patolli or backgammon-game of Mexico’. Commenting on the vast and unparalleled assembly of world games presented by Stewart Culin at WCE, Zelia wrote: ‘I place the utmost value upon Mr. Culin’s painstaking and conscientious researches and regard them as strongly corroborating my views exposed in the preceding pages. His identification of the pictured diagram in the Fejérváry Codex, as the counting circuit of the Four Quarters, with a presiding god in the middle, as in Zuñi, does credit to his perspicacity. I agree with him in considering that this chart could have been employed after the Conquest as a game or for divination…’ (emphasis added).
Culin’s hugely popular games exhibit included Zelia Nuttall’s own private (‘Central American’) game collection, the charts of her reconstruction of the ‘ancient Mexican calendar system’ – and her illustration of Patolli from the Codex Magliabechiano. Yes, the Patolli is the Aztec cross-shaped version, but clearly she was also well familiar with – and intrigued by – the mysterious ‘square with loops’ configuration with its associations with the four quarters of the world.
What’s more, in her post-Chicago writings, Zelia specifically discusses important ancient associations between calendars, games and divination: her references to how children’s fates were predicted at birth via day signs and soothsayer predictions… ‘help us to understand the origin not only of divination, propitiation and the belief in the influence of day-signs, but also of the native games which became popular after the Conquest, when their original use and meaning had become obsolete…’ (emphasis added).
In answer to a couple of your points, then, I would suggest that a) Magie, if she attended WCE, would most definitely have seen far more than just a solitary picture of the cross-shaped game, and b) Holmes’s drawings – and Holmes himself as he was there! - far from being as you suggest misunderstood and unnoticed, would have contributed to the ardent debates amongst the group of key thinkers at WCE around ancient games, religion, divination and calendrical circuits. Nuttall’s biographer wrote just a few years ago ‘Throughout her life, Zelia was excited by puzzles. They gave her the energy to focus…’ I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at WCE, buzzing as it was with creative excitement!
Fascinating stuff…
Ian
Greta Pennell
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Ian Mursell
Many thanks, Greta, for this. I will study the link and seriously consider…
Cheers,
Ian
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