New Scientist
Image: Patrick Wertmann
The first ball games in Eurasia may have been played 3000 years ago, according to a new analysis of three leather balls unearthed in an ancient cemetery in northern China. One of the men buried with a leather ball also sported the world’s earliest known pair of trousers, which he may have worn while playing.
The Yanghai cemetery, which contains more than 500 graves, was in use between about 3200 and 1850 years ago. Archaeologists working there a few years ago uncovered three leather balls from three separate graves. The balls, each about 9 centimetres in diameter, had been stuffed with either leather strips or with wool and hair. Two of them had a red cross painted on one side.
According to initial estimates, the leather balls were between 2800 and 2400 years old, making them the earliest known balls in Eurasia. The world’s oldest known ball is 4500 years old and was found in a child’s tomb in Egypt. Read more on newscientist.com…
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