Macuahuitl

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Drawing of a 15th century macahuitl
Drawing of a 15th century macahuitl

The macuahuitl (also called maquahuitl) is a weapon shaped like wooden club. Its sides are embedded with prismatic blades made from obsidian, a volcanic glass stone frequently used for tool making by the Aztec and other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.

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[edit] Description

The macahuitl, a type of macana, was a common weapon used by the Aztec military forces and other cultures of central Mexico during 16th century Spanish conquest of the region. They also used other implements such as the chimalli (a round shield), the tlauitolli (bow), and the atlatl (spear-thrower).[1] Although sometimes called a wooden sword, its appearance is closer to that of a club or a paddle. It was capable of inflicting serious lacerations from the rows of obsidian blades embedded in its sides.[2]

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 and formed a single edge.[4]

The macahuitl was made with either one-handed or two-handed grips as well as in rectangular, ovoid, or pointed forms. The two-handed macahuitl has been described “as tall as a man”.[5]

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

[edit] Origins and distribution

The macahuitl predates the Aztecs. Tools made from obsidian fragments were used by some of the earliest Mesoamericans. Microscopic studies have demonstrated that obsidian blades have the sharpest edges of any tool, then or now.[6] Obsidian used in ceramic vessels has been found at Aztec sites. Obsidian cutting knives, sickles, scrapers, drills, razoers, and arrow points have also been found.[7]

Several obsidian mines were close to the Aztec civilizations in the Valley of Mexico as well as in the mountains north of the valley.[8] In a Chichen Itza carving, a possible ancestor of the macahuitl is shown as a club having separate blades sticking out from each side. In a mural, a warrior holds a club with many blades on one side and one shape point on the other, a possible ancestor of the macahuitl.[9] The macahuitl was an excellent tool for providing sacrificial victims: 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 an individual unconscious for easy capture and later sacrifice.

[edit] Effectiveness

The macahuitl was sharp enough to decapitate a man.[10] 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. [11]

The macahuitl also had some drawbacks. It takes more time to lift and swing a club than it does to thrust with a sword. More space is needed as well, so warriors advanced in loose formations.[12]

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.[13]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Soustelle (1961), p.209.
  2. ^ Coe (1962), p.168.
  3. ^ Quote is from A.P. Maudslay's translation commentary of Bernal Díaz del Castillo's Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva España (republished as "The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico", p.465).
  4. ^ See Hassig (1988), p.85.
  5. ^ Hassig, Op. Cit. p.83.
  6. ^ Smith, p. 86
  7. ^ Smith p.86
  8. ^ Smith p. 87
  9. ^ Hassig p. 85
  10. ^ Smith, p. 86
  11. ^ Diaz del Castillo, p. 126
  12. ^ Richard Townsend, The Aztecs p. 24
  13. ^ Hassig, p. 85

[edit] References

  • Baquedano, Elizabeth (1993). Aztec, Inca & Maya. London: Dorling Kindersley. 
  • Coe, Michael D. (1962). Mexico. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. ISBN 0-938631-36-5. 
  • Díaz del Castillo, Bernal [ca.1568] (1956). in 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 1-84212-508-7. 
  • Townsend, Richard F. (2000). The Aztecs, revised ed., London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28132-7. 
  • Peter Weller (Host), Jin Gaffer( Writer and Director), Mark Cannon (Series Director), Randy Martini (Series Producer), Jeremy Siefer (Editor). (2006). Engineering an Empire: The Aztecs [Documentary]. History Channel.

[edit] External links

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