A macuahuitl, a
type of macana, is a wooden sword with obsidian blades. The name is
derived from the Nahuatl language. Its sides are embedded with prismatic
blades traditionally made from obsidian, famous for producing an edge
far sharper than even high-quality steel razor blades. It was a common
weapon used by the Aztec military forces and other cultures of central
Mexico. It was described during the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the
region. Aztec warriors as shown in the 16th-century Florentine Codex (Vol. IX). Each warrior is brandishing a macuahuitl. Wikipedia/Public DomainAccording
to National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) archaeologist
Marco Cervera Obregón, there were two versions of this weapon:.The
macuahuitl, about 70–80 cm long, had six to eight blades on each side,
and the mācuāhuitzōctli, a smaller club about 50 cm long, had only four
obsidian blades. Other people believe that their length varied from 1.06
to 2.13 meters. A modern recreation of a ceremonial macuahuitl. Wikipedia/Public DomainThe
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.”
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. It was noted by the Spanish that the
macuahuitl was so cleverly constructed that the blades could be neither
pulled out nor broken. This drawing, from the 16th-century Florentine Codex, shows Aztec warriors brandishing macuahuitls. Wikipedia/Public DomainThe macuahuitl was sharp enough to decapitate a man. According to an account in The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Hernán Cortés’s conquistadors, it could even decapitate a horse:
Pedro
de Morón 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. Drawing
part of the Catalog of the Royal Armoury of Madrid by the medievalist
Achille Jubinal in the 19th century, original specimen was destroyed by a
fire in 1884. Wikipedia/Public Domain
Another account by Francisco de Aguilar read:
They
used … cudgels and swords and a great many bows and arrows … One Indian
at a single stroke cut open the whole neck of Cristóbal de Olid’s
horse, killing the horse. The Indian on the other side slashed at the
second horseman and the blow cut through the horse’s pastern, whereupon
this horse also fell dead.
As soon as this sentry gave the alarm,
they all ran out with their weapons to cut us off, following us with
great fury, shooting arrows, spears and stones, and wounding us with
their swords. Here many Spaniards fell, some dead and some wounded, and
others without any injury who fainted away from fright. – The Conquistadores, Francisco de Agular
According
to the historical anthropologist – Ross Hassig, the last authentic
macuahuitl was destroyed in 1884 in a fire in the Real Armería in
Madrid, where it was housed beside the last tepoztopilli. However,
according to Marco Cervera Obregón, there is supposed to be at least one
macuahuitl in a Museo Nacional de Antropología warehouse, but it is
possibly lost. A modern replica of a tepoztopilli. Wikipedia/Public DomainNo
actual macuahuitl specimens remain, and the present knowledge of them
comes from contemporaneous accounts and illustrations that date to the
16th century and earlier.
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