Basketball is now one of the most popular and spectacular game sports. They are engaged in it all over the world. Competitions are held both among men and women. Since 1936, basketball is constantly included in the program of the Summer Olympic Games. And although in modern guise this sport appeared not so long ago, a similar game existed even among the ancient peoples.
Even the Maya Indians, according to historians and archaeologists, played a kind of basketball. It was in the second millennium BC, when this civilization began to exist. Then called the game, of course, not “basketball”, and “pok-ta-pok”, but the rules were similar. There were found ancient sites for this game, which were about 150 m in length. The players of each team lined up along a certain line, it was forbidden to go behind it, and behind each team there were rings at a height of 10 m, which had to be amazed. However, the rings were located not as in modern basketball, but vertically.
Some facts of this ancient similarity of basketball are interesting: first the Indians played with the heads of captured enemies. Then for the game began to use heavy rubber balls with the size of a human head. But the passions at such competitions, which were perceived as entertainment, flared up significantly. Losing the team, as in principle, and the team of winners, quite after the match could sacrifice the gods.
