A ball is a round usually spherical but sometimes ovoid, object with

various uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game
follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players.
Although many types of balls are today made from rubber, this form
was unknown outside the Americas until after the voyages of
Columbus. The Spanish were the first Europeans to see bouncing
rubber balls (albeit solid and not inflated) which were employed
most notably in the Mesoamerican ballgame. Balls used in various
sports in other parts of the world prior to Columbus were made from
other materials such as animal bladders or skins, stuffed with
various materials.

INTEGRANTES: Macarena Ortiz Gonzalo Santa Clara Franco Perino

A ball, as the essential feature in many forms of gameplay

requiring physical exertion, must date from the very earliest
times. A rolling object appeals not only to a human baby but to a
kitten and a puppy. Some form of game with a ball is found
portrayed on Egyptian monuments, and is played among aboriginal
tribes at the present day. In Homer, Nausicaa was playing at ball
with her maidens when Odysseus first saw her in the land of the
Phaeacians. And Halios and Laodamas performed before Alcinous
and Odysseus with ball play, accompanied with dancing (Od. viii.
370). The Hebrews have no mention of the ball in their scriptures.

Among the Greeks games with balls () were regarded as a

useful subsidiary to the more violent athletic exercises, as a means of
keeping the body supple, and rendering it graceful, but were generally
left to boys and girls. Of regular rules for the playing of ball games,
little trace remains, if there were any such. The names in Greek for
various forms, which have come down to us in such works as the
of Julius Pollux, imply little or nothing of such; thus,
only means the putting of the ball on the ground with the open hand, ,
the flinging of the ball in the air to be caught by two or more players;
would seem to be a game of catch played by two or more, where
feinting is used as a test of quickness and skill. Pollux mentions a
game called episkyros, which has often been looked on as the origin
of football. It seems to have been played by two sides, arranged in
lines; how far there was any form of "goal" seems uncertain.

 Among the Romans, ball games were looked upon as an

adjunct to the bath, and were graduated to the age and
health of the bathers, and usually a place
(sphaeristerium) was set apart for them in the baths
(thermae). There appear to have been three types or
sizes of ball, the , or small ball, used in catching games,
the , a heavy ball stuffed with feathers, and the follis, a
leather ball filled with air, the largest of the three. This
was struck from player to player, who wore a kind of
gauntlet on the arm. There was a game known as trigon,
played by three players standing in the form of a triangle,
and played with the follis, and also one known as
harpastum, which seems to imply a "scrimmage" among
several players for the ball. These games are known to
us through the Romans, though the names are Greek.