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GUERRERO, MEXICO—While repairing a water pipeline at the site of Piedra Labrada, workers uncovered a life-sized statue of a Mesoamerican ball player with bowed legs and crossed arms. The granite sculpture is at least 1,000 years old, and was found on the largest of five ball game platforms at the site. “A helmet is carved on the head, while the waist features a yugo. This is like a belt but stronger to protect this part of the body during the ball game,” said Juan Pablo Sereno Uribe of the National Institute of Archaeology and History. The statue’s head had been sliced off, as if the player had been decapitated.
