Macuahuitl

The maquahuitl (a name that was derived from the Nahuatl language) is a weapon shaped like a wooden sword. 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. It was similar to a large wooden club with cuts in the side to hold the sharpened obsidian.

Drawing of the macuahuitl destroyed during the fire of the Real Armería of Madrid in 1884.

Description

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

The maquahuitl (Nahuatl: mācuahuitl, other orthographical variants include maquahutil, macquahuitl and māccuahuitl),^[1] a type of macana, was a common weapon used by the Aztec military forces and other cultures of central Mexico, that was noted during the 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).^[2] It is sometimes referred to as a sword or club, but it lacks a true European equivalent. It was capable of inflicting serious lacerations from the rows of obsidian blades embedded in its sides.^[3]

According to one source, the macuahuitl was 3 to 4 feet (0.91 to 1.2 m) long, and three inches (80 mm) 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

The macuahuitl was made with either one-handed or two-handed grips, as well as in rectangular, ovoid, or pointed forms. The two-handed macuahuitl has been described “as tall as a man”.^[6]

Specimens

According to Ross Hassig, the last authentic macuahuitl was destroyed in 1884 in a fire in the Armería Real in Madrid, where it was housed beside the last tepoztopilli.^[6][7] However, according to ENAH archaeologist Marco Cervera Obregón, there is supposed to be at least one macuahuitl in MNA's warehouse^[8] but it is possibly lost.^[9]

Origins and distribution

The maquahuitl predates the Aztecs. Tools made from obsidian fragments were used by some of the earliest Mesoamericans. Obsidian used in ceramic vessels has been found at Aztec sites. Obsidian cutting knives, sickles, scrapers, drills, razors, and arrow points have also been found.^[10]

Several obsidian mines were close to the Aztec civilizations in the Valley of Mexico as well as in the mountains north of the valley.^[11] In a Chichen Itza carving, a possible ancestor of the macuahuitl 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 sharp point on the other, a possible ancestor of the macuahuitl.^[5] The macuahuitl was an excellent tool for providing sacrificial victims: the design of the macuahuitl 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.

Effectiveness

The maquahuitl was sharp enough to decapitate a man.^[10] According to an account by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Hernán 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.^[12]

The maquahuitl 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.^[13]

No actual maquahuitl specimens remain and the present knowledge of them comes from contemporaneous accounts and illustrations that date to the sixteenth century and earlier.^[5]

For SpikeTV's reality show Deadliest Warrior, a replica was created to test. It was tested against a replica of a horse's head created using a horse's skeleton and ballistics gel. Actor and martial artist Eder Saul Lopez was able to decapitate the model. However, it took three swings. It was most effective when it was swung and then dragged backwards, creating a sawing motion similar to that of the Leiomano, the Shark Tooth Club, the Maori Warriors used in Season 1.

See also

• Macana
• Aztec warfare
• Obsidian use in Mesoamerica

Notes

1. ^ See Wimmer (2006), entry under 'MACUAHUITL': "de MACPA à MACUEXTZIN"
2. ^ Soustelle (1961), p.209.
3. ^ Coe (1962), p.168.
4. ^ 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).
5. ^ ^{a b c} See Hassig (1988), p.85.
6. ^ ^{a b} Hassig, Op. Cit. p.83.
7. ^ Hassig 1992, p.169.
8. ^ ,Cervera Obregón, Marco (2006). "The macuahuitl: an innovative weapon of the Late Post-Classic in Mesoamerica". Arms & Armour 3 (2): 137–138. http://www.woosterglobalhistory.org/LAcolonial/archive/files/23395812_33c717a7fb.pdf. Retrieved 26 October 2010. 
9. ^ Cerevera Obregón, Marco. "El macuahuitl, arqueologia experimental". http://arqueomilitar.blogspot.com/2009/02/el-macuahuitl-arqueologia-experimental.html. Retrieved 26 October 2010. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Smith p.86
11. ^ Smith p. 87
12. ^ Diaz del Castillo, p. 126
13. ^ Richard Townsend, The Aztecs p. 24

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 (1956) [ca.1568]. Genaro Garcia (Ed.). 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. 
• Hassig, Ross (1992). War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica. University of California Press. ISBN 0-5200-7734-2. 
• 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. 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. 
• Wimmer, Alexis (2006). "Dictionnaire de la langue nahuatl classique" (online version). http://sites.estvideo.net/malinal/nahuatl.page.html. Retrieved 2007-08-22.  (French) (Nahuatl)

Cervera Obregón Marco A. “The macuahuitl: A probable weaponry innovation of the Late Posclassic in Mesoamérica” en Arms and Armour, Journal of the Royal Armouires, n.3, Leeds, 2006.

Cervera Obregón Marco A. “El macuahuitl, un arma del Posclásico Tardío en Mesoamérica”, en Arqueología Mexicana, No 84, 2007.

Cervera Obregón Marco A. El armamento entre los mexicas, GLADIUS, CSIC, Polifemo, Madrid, 2007 con prólogo de Ross Hassig.

External links

• Glimmerdream: obsidian history
• FAMSI: John Pohl's Mesoamerica, Aztec Society/Warfare
• modern-day amateur attempt to produce something similar to a maquahuitl (note, however, that it does not match any of the most thrust-worthy depictions, such as the drawing from Madrid's Real Armería)