Macuahuitl

The macuahuitl ( (singular) ) is a weapon shaped like a wooden sword whose name is derived from the Nahuatl language. Its sides are embedded with prismatic blades made from obsidian, a volcanic glass stone. It was similar to a large wooden club with cuts in the side to hold the sharpened obsidian.

Description
The maquahuitl (mācuahuitl, other orthographical variants include maquahutil, macquahuitl and māccuahuitl), 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 round shield (chimalli ), the bow (tlahuītōlli ), and the spear-thrower (atlatl ). It is sometimes referred to as a sword or club, but it lacks a true European equivalent, perhaps it is best described as a baton with a cutting edge. It was capable of inflicting serious lacerations from the rows of obsidian blades embedded in its sides, which could be knapped into blades, spikes, or in a circular fashion that looked like "scales"

According to one source, the macuahuitl was 3 to 4 ft 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. 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 the blades could be neither pulled out nor broken.

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”.

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. However, according to National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) archaeologist Marco Cervera Obregón, there is supposed to be at least one macuahuitl in a Museo Nacional de Antropología warehouse but it is possibly lost.

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.

Several obsidian mines were close to the Aztec civilizations in the Valley of Mexico as well as in the mountains north of the valley. 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. 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. According to an account 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."

Another account by the a companion of Cortés known as The Anoynymous Conquerer tells a similar story of its effectiveness: "They have swords of this kind &mdash; of wood made like a two-handed sword, but with the hilt not so long; about three fingers in breadth. The edges are grooved, and in the grooves they insert stone knifes, that cut like a Toledo knife. I saw one day an Indian fighting with a mounted man, and the Indian gave the horse of his antagonist such a blow in the breast that he opened it to the entrails, and it fell dead on the spot. And the same day I saw another Indian give another horse a blow in the neck, that stretched it dead at his feat."

- "Offensive and Defensive Arms", page 23

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 maquahuitl 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.

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.

Replicas of the macuahuitl have been produced and tested against sides of beef for documentary shows on the History and Discovery channels, which demonstrate the effectiveness of this weapon. On the History channel show Warriors, special forces operator and martial artist Terry Schappert injured himself while fencing with a macuahuitl, he cut the back of his leg as the result from a back-swing motion, he replied: "I think I might need sutures, it's deep".

For SpikeTV's reality program Deadliest Warrior, a replica was created and tested against a model of a horse's head (using a horse's skeleton and ballistics gel). Actor and martial artist Éder Saúl López 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, (which led to Geoff Desmoulin, the programs's biomedical scientist, to refer to the weapon as "the obsidian chainsaw"). This may have been due to the relatively crudely made obsidian cutting edges used in the show's weapon as compared with more finely made prismatic obsidian blades.