Aztec Weapons: Macuahuitl

       In battle the Aztecs had many weapons but none quite as lethal as the macuahuitl. Loosely translated to ‘hand stick’, the Europeans described the weapon as a sword although there are very little similarities between the two. It is believed that the Aztecs did not invent this weapon, only perfect it. 

       The macuahuitl is made of a wooden board. Though the board didn’t do damage, the obsidian spikes did. It originally started off in other Mexican tribes and worked its way into the Aztec military because they needed a weapon for close contact. Many Aztec weapons were created to fight from afar and push back their enemies.

      But the macuahuitl was not made to kill, just badly injure. It was used mainly to slash and cut the enemies. However Conquistadors Bernal Diaz del Castillo and Hernan Cortés say otherwise. They said that their encounter with this weapon decapitated horses and did in fact kill many, which isn’t hard to believe due to the obsidian blades attached to it.

      There were two verisons of this weapon, the macuahuitl being the larger one around 70-90 cm in length with a minimum of six to eight blades on each side. The second version, the macuahuilzoctli was around 50 cm long and looked quite scary.

 Bibliography

Ancient Aztec Weapon." Ancient Aztec Weapon. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Macuahuitl - The Wooden Sword of Aztec Offensive Weapons." About.com Education. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Web. 9 Nov. 2015.