Macuahuitl

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Drawing of a 15th century macahuitl

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The macuahuitl (alternatively, maquahuitl) is a weapon fashioned as a wooden club fringed with cutting blades made from obsidian, which is known to have been used by pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures of the Postclassic era in the central Mexican region, in particular by the Aztec.

[edit] Description

The macahuitl (sometimes also referred to by the more general term macana, which describes the general class of this weapon) was a common item in the armoury of the Aztec military forces and other cultures of central Mexico at the time of the 16th century Spanish conquest of the region, along with other implements such as the chimalli (a round shield), the tlauitolli (bow), and the atlatl (spear-thrower).^[1] Although sometimes referred to as a type of wooden sword, its appearance was closer to that of a club or a paddle. It was capable of inflicting serious damage and lacerations owing to the rows of obsidian blades affixed to its perimeter.^[2]

Aztec warriors as shown in the 16th century Florentine Codex (from Vol. IX). Note that each warrior is brandishing a maquahuitl.

The macahuitl was “three to four feet long, and three inches broad, with a groove along either edge, into which sharp-edged pieces of flint or obsidian were inserted, and firmly fixed with some adhesive compound”.^[3] The rows of obsidian blades were sometimes discontinuous, leaving gaps along the side while at other times, the rows were set close together, forming a “continuous cutting edge”.^[4]

Additionally, the macahuitl existed in one-handed or two-handed grips as well as rectangular, ovoid, or pointed forms. The two-handed macahuitl was sometimes said to be “as tall as a man”.^[5]

[edit] Origins and distribution

The beginnings of this sword date to a time long before the Aztecs. Tools made from obsidian fragments were used by some of the earliest Mesoamericans (Smith 86). A tool can easily be turned into a weapon but what is it about obsidian that led to the development of the macahuitl. Michael Smith states, “[M]icroscopic studies have shown obsidian blades to have the sharpest edges of any known tool, ancient or modern” (86). But do not think that this is all that obsidian was used for because Smith goes on to say that obsidian tools are second only to ceramic vessels at Aztec residential sites (86). One such Aztec residential use of obsidian was the razor, which was used all the way up to A.D. 150 (James 263). They also used obsidian for cutting knives, sickles, scrapers, drills, and arrow points (Smith 86). Even today, obsidian is used in many places such as eye surgery (The Aztecs). The Aztec civilization was situated close to several obsidian mines in the Valley of Mexico and some in the mountains north of the valley (Smith 87). With the world’s sharpest blade used in everyday life, the invention of the macahuitl was only a matter of time if its time had not come first. In a Chichen Itza carving, a possible ancestor of the macahuitl is shown as a club “with two separate blades protruding from each side,” and in a separate mural, a warrior holds “a club with blades on one side and a single point or blade on the other,” which could be another ancestor of the macahuitl (Hassig 85). One final factor that contributed to the design of the macahuitl was the need for sacrificial victims. As to why human sacrifice was so important to the Aztecs, Elizabeth Baquendano explains “[The Aztecs] believed that human sacrifice kept the sun in motion” (28). The design of the macahuitl allowed the warrior to injure the opponent with the obsidian blades while the blunt top could be used to render individuals unconscious so that they could be captured and used for sacrifice. Surely, whoever met this club that brought obsidian edges in battle was in for a series of unfortunate events.

[edit] Effectiveness

According to Michael Smith, the macahuitl was sharp enough to decapitate a man^[6]. According to an account by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Hernando Cortés’s conquistadors, it could even decapitate a horse:

Pedro de Moron, was a very good horseman, and as he charged with three other horsemen into the ranks of the enemy the Indians seized hold of his lance and he was not able to drag it away, and others gave him cuts with their broadswords, and wounded him badly, and then they slashed at the mare, and cut her head off at the neck so that it hung by the skin, and she fell dead. ^[7]

The macahuitl also had some drawbacks. Richard Townsend, in The Aztecs states, “not only was more time was required to lift and swing a club than to thrust and jab with a sword, but more space was need, meaning the Indians tended to advance in loose formations.”^[8].

No actual macahuitl specimens have been found and the present knowledge of them comes from contemporaneous accounts and illustrations that date to the sixteenth century and earlier. ^[9]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Baquedano, Elizabeth (1993). Aztec, Inca & Maya. London: Dorling Kindersley.
• Coe, Michael D. (1962). Mexico. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. ISBN 0-938-63136-5.
• Díaz del Castillo, Bernal [ca.1568] (1956). Genaro Garcia (Ed.): The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico 1517-1521, A. P. Maudslay (Trans.), New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy.
• Hassig, Ross (1988). Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2121-1.
• James, Peter, and Nick Thorpe (1994). Ancient Inventions. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Smith, Michael E. (1996). The Aztecs. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell Publishers.
• Soustelle, Jacques (1961). Daily Life of the Aztecs:On the Eve of the Spanish Conquest, Patrick O’Brian (Trans.), London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-842-12508-7.
• Townsend, Richard F. (2000). The Aztecs, revised ed., London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0500281327.
• Peter Weller(Host), Jin Gaffer(Writ. and Dir.), Mark Cannon(Series Dir.), Randy Martini(Series Prod.), Jeremy Siefer(Ed.). (2006). Engineering an Empire: The Aztecs [Documentary]. History Channel.

[edit] External Links

• Glimmerdream: obsidian history
• FAMSI: John Pohl's Mesoamerica, Aztec Society/Warfare

[edit] See also

• Macana
• Aztec army