Soccer ball 3000 years ago

Mesoamerica people have created many types of rubber with different characteristics more than 3,000 years ago, before Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered the phenomenon of rubber vulcanization in the mid-nineteenth century.

A ball made from the sap of Olmec people.Photo: NatGeo .

The latest research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists shows that the Aztecs, Olmec and Maya of ancient Mesoamerica civilization knew how to create rubber products from natural plastics. found in some plants.

Ancient rubber makers harvested plastic from rubber trees and mixed it with the convolvulus, which makes hard plastic less brittle to create rubber products.

Through research, the researchers found that by changing the ratios of these two components, many different types of rubber have been created. In particular, some highly elastic rubber types may have been used to create balls in Mesoamerica football matches.

According to ancient Mayan records, their football matches often have religious meaning - blessing and exorcism. The Maya ended their matches with a sacrificial ritual where the losing party would be beheaded.

Changing the ratio of ingredients can also create very durable rubber. According to scientists, this could be a material to create rubber sandals of Aztecs that Spanish explorers mentioned in their notes.

The convolvulus usually grows on the side of the rubber tree. And in some Mesoamerican cultures, both plants are considered holy plants. For example, because convolvulus can create hallucinations for people, so they are used in religious ceremonies.

For solid evidence for his conclusions, Michael Tarkanian, an expert at the Center for Anthropological and Archaeological Materials Research at MIT and his colleagues, took materials from tall trees. Su grows and convoluted flowers grow in Mexico and bring back to the laboratory and make rubber in the way of ancient Mesoamerica.

Tarkanian said that the Aztec, Maya or other civilizations were able to create high-performance rubbers did not surprise people at all.

Although always considered a primitive, brutal ethnic group, the Aztecs have very high scientific discovery spirit. The experiments they have conducted in metallurgy and many areas have proved this.

"Science, technology and the development of vocational skills have helped them try to combine different components to create rubber," Tarkanian said.

After these ingredients are mixed together, it takes about 10 minutes for the rubber to form and another 5 minutes for them to harden. Thus, ancient rubber producers only have a few minutes to create the final shape of the product.

In the laboratory, Tarkanian and his colleagues mainly made rubber pieces according to the Mesoamerica formula, but they also made some balls. 'At the end of the semester, we played a Mesoamerica style match. The losing team was beheaded, ' Tarkanian joked.

The results of this study will be published in the next issue of 'Latin American Antiquity'.

Source: National Geographic