Taíno bateys and ceremonial plazas
Bateyes y plazas ceremoniales taínas
- Date
- c. 600-1200 · confidence low
- Place
- Tibes Ceremonial Center, Ponce, Puerto Rico
- Credited to
- Ostionoid and Taíno peoples of Puerto Rico
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Rectangular plazas bordered by stones where the batey, a rubber-ball game, was played and chiefdom rituals were held; Tibes has one of the oldest complexes in the Antilles. They are the formal public spaces of Taíno society.
The origin of the Antillean ball game (Mesoamerican influence versus local development) and the chronology of Tibes, occupied between c. AD 600 and 1200, are debated; the year is a midpoint.
What it led to
- political and ritual space of Antillean chiefdoms
- centres such as Caguana (Utuado) with large petroglyphs and causeways
- the ball game as a practice shared with Mesoamerica