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35-406: Life in the telpochcalli was tough. From early morning strenuous activities began. The day began with a cold bath, followed by a controlled and extremely frugal meal. They had to memorize the songs which they offered as praises of their gods and practiced in the use of weapons such as the sling, and the macuahuitl . Students had other obligations, such as carrying the necessary materials to repair

70-455: A blow in the neck, that stretched it dead at his feet. Another account by Francisco de Aguilar reads: 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

105-568: A club than it does to thrust with a sword. More space is needed as well, so warriors advanced in loose formations and fought in single combat. Replicas of the macuahuitl have been produced and tested against sides of beef for documentary shows on the History and Discovery channels, to demonstrate the effectiveness of this weapon. On the History show Warriors , special forces operator and martial artist Terry Schappert injured himself while fencing with

140-462: A few noble boys, attended the school for youths at the telpochcalli . which were located in each neighborhood ( calpulli ). Each family in Tenochtitlan regarded their children as a gift from the gods; children would continue the lineage, collaborate in the activities of the family and learn to respect their elders and venerate The Gods. Someday the family would celebrate their marriage, thus forming

175-427: A macuahuitl; he cut the back of his left leg as the result of a back-swing motion. For SpikeTV 's reality program Deadliest Warrior a replica was created and tested against a model of a horse's head created using a horse's skeleton and ballistics gel . Actor and martial artist Éder Saúl López was able to decapitate the model, but it took three swings. Blows from the replica macuahuitl were most effective when it

210-422: A new pillar in the social organization of the calpulli. It was very important that within the family that children learn in the generation of the universe, carried out by the supreme gods, the male and female energies had been joined to enforce the creation of life. Women therefore educated their daughters, while men instructed their sons; that way through the process of informal education which had been imparted in

245-692: A possible variant of the macuahuitl. Some attestations of a type of macuahuitl are also present dating to Olmec times. By the time of the Spanish conquest , the macuahuitl was widely distributed in Mesoamerica , with records of its use by the Aztecs, Mixtecs, Tarascans, Toltecs and others. It was also commonly used by the Indian auxiliaries of Spain, though they favored Spanish swords. As Mesoamericans in Spanish service needed

280-462: A premium on the capture of enemy warriors for live sacrifice. Advancement into the elite cuāuhocēlōtl warrior societies of the Aztec, for example, required taking 20 live captives from the battlefield. The macuahuitl thus shows several features designed to make it a useful tool for capturing prisoners: fitting spaced instead of contiguous blades, as seen in many codex illustrations, would intentionally limit

315-443: A special permission to carry European arms, metal swords brought Indian auxiliaries more prestige than maquahuitls in the eyes of Europeans as well as natives. The macuahuitl 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

350-480: 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 knives, that cut like a Toledo blade. 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

385-580: A type of macana , was a common weapon used by the Aztec military forces and other cultures of central Mexico. It was noted during the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the region . Other military equipment recorded includes the round shield ( chīmalli , [t͡ʃiˈmalːi] ), the bow ( tlahuītōlli , [t͡ɬaʔwiːˈtoːlːi] ), and the spear-thrower ( ahtlatl , [ˈaʔt͡ɬat͡ɬ] ). Its sides are embedded with prismatic blades traditionally made from obsidian (volcanic glass); obsidian

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420-450: Is also considerably more brittle than steel; obsidian blades of the type used on the macuahuitl tended to shatter on impact with other obsidian blades, steel swords or plate armour . Obsidian blades also have difficulty penetrating European mail . The thin, replaceable blades used on the macuahuitl were easily dulled or chipped by repeated impacts on bone or wood, making artful use of the weapon critical. It takes more time to lift and swing

455-418: Is capable of producing an edge sharper than high-quality steel razor blades. It was capable of inflicting serious lacerations from the rows of obsidian blades embedded in its sides. These could be knapped into blades or spikes, or into a circular design that looked like scales. The macuahuitl is not specifically a sword or a club, although it approximates a European broadsword. Historian John Pohl defines

490-504: Is possibly lost. No actual maquahuitl specimens remain and the present knowledge of them comes from contemporaneous accounts and illustrations that date to the 16th century and earlier. For the exhibition "Tenochtitlan y Tlatelolco. A 500 años de su caída" at the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico city , an alleged authentic macuahuitl was displayed along with an atlatl . The maquahuitl predates

525-579: The Chaska chuqui tip was in a star shape to maximize the potential to break bone. They were the most common weapon in the Inca arsenal, and it is possible that gold or silver was used for the star for high-ranking officers. In modern Spanish the word has broadened to refer to various types of blunt wooden weapons, especially a police nightstick , with a shape very similar to Okinawan tonfas . The sizes of macanas are thought to have varied significantly, depending on

560-606: The Conquest of the Aztec Empire ; it was part of the Royal Armoury of Madrid until it was destroyed by a fire in 1884. Images of the original designs survive in diverse catalogues. The oldest replica is the macuahuitl created by the medievalist Achille Jubinal in the 19th century. The maquahuitl ( Classical Nahuatl : māccuahuitl , other orthographic variants include mākkwawitl and mācquahuitl ; plural māccuahuimeh ),

595-547: The Nahuatl name macuahuitl . In the Andes , the Spanish conquistadors applied the term "macana" to the several blunt, mace -like weapons at the disposal of the Inca army 's arsenal, particularly to the Chaska chuqui (lit. star spear) and the Chambi (mace) weapons which consisted of a wooden shaft with a heavy metal (copper or bronze) or stone object at the end. As its name suggests,

630-457: The Sierra de las Navajas (Razor Mountains), named after their obsidian deposits. Use of the macuahuitl as a weapon is attested from the 1st millennia   CE. A Mayan carving at Chichen Itza shows a warrior holding a macuahuitl, depicted 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, also

665-461: 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. Among these were

700-458: 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. Given the importance of human sacrifice in Nahua cultures, their warfare styles, particularly those of the Aztec and Maya, placed

735-697: The application. Most were about one meter long, though other macana varieties were larger. Diversity in macana size likely arose due to various factors, including battle strategy, combatant status or position in the military hierarchy , ethnopolitical group, or environmental factors such as availability of chulul wood. The most dominant iterations of macanas appear to be broad, flat wooden shafts with grooved edges flanked with obsidian blades held in place by resin or another mastic. Macana makers may have made their segments shorter to produce more of them per blade from this non-local resource, especially if obsidian grew increasingly scarce. The obsidian was imported into

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770-500: The blades could be neither pulled out nor broken. The macuahuitl was made with either a one-handed or two-handed grip, as well as in rectangular, ovoid, or pointed forms. Two-handed macuahuitl have been described as being "as tall as a man". According to National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) archaeologist Marco Cervera Obregón , there were two versions of this weapon: The macuahuitl, about 70 to 80 centimetres (28 to 31 in) long with six to eight blades on each side; and

805-446: The family, children learned the appropriate behaviors and different etiquettes for each sex. From the age of three or four years, infants were to perform simple tasks with great restraint and obedience; as the years passed the work became more complex and with heavier tasks; that is how sons learned the crafts of their fathers, while girls learned the duties of their mothers, like cleaning the house, preparing food, spinning clothing for

840-533: The family, etc. Initially, children who rebelled were threatened with spanking, which became effective when they showed further disobedience; later, if young boys displayed negative attitudes, parents applied painful punctures with maguey thorns, or they would semi-asphyxyate them with the smoke from burning chillies (preparing them incidentally, for future practices of self-sacrifice). On the other hand, young ladies who showed negative attitudes, such as flirting and taste for gossip, were forced to sweep at night out of

875-445: The house, which was seen as worse than a beating. Macuahuitl A macuahuitl ( [maːˈkʷawit͡ɬ] ) is a weapon, a wooden sword with several embedded obsidian blades. The name is derived from the Nahuatl language and means "hand-wood". Its sides are embedded with prismatic blades traditionally made from obsidian , which is capable of producing an edge sharper than high quality steel razor blades. The macuahuitl

910-573: The lowlands from highland sources in Guatemala and Mexico , probably as preformed polyhedral cores. One-handed use of macanas enables the user to hold a shield in the free hand while larger macana species typically necessitates two hands. Spanish reports during early battles with the Maya described their opponents' armaments included "[s]words that appeared to be two-handed ones" and "two-handed swords of very strong wood [studded with] obsidian." Many of

945-530: The mācuāhuitzōctli, a smaller club about 50 centimetres (20 in) long with only four obsidian blades. According to 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 . According to Marco Cervera Obregón, there is supposed to be at least one macuahuitl in a Museo Nacional de Antropología warehouse, but it

980-510: 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 a companion of Cortés known as The Anonymous Conqueror tells a similar story of its effectiveness: They have swords of this kind – of wood made like

1015-421: The research of historian Marco Cervera Obregón, the sharp pieces of obsidian, each about 3 cm long, were attached to the flat paddle with a natural adhesive, bitumen . 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

1050-437: The temples ( teocalli ), and collectively working the fields for their livelihood. The Aztec world was characterized by the care the rulers put into the education system. Tenochtitlan schools were of two types, generally depending on the boys' social background: the sons of nobles attended the calmecac , an institution that was located within the ceremonial precinct, while the commoners known generically as macehualtin , and

1085-517: The various native cultures of Central and South America . These weapons were referred to as a hadzab or hats'ab in Yucatecan Mayan . The earliest meaning attributed to macana is a sword-like weapon made out of wood, but still sharp enough to be dangerous. The term is also sometimes applied to the similar Aztec weapon, which is studded with pieces of obsidian in order to create a blade, though some authorities distinguish this item by using

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1120-475: The weapon as a "kind of a saw sword". According to conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo , the macuahuitl was 0.91 to 1.22 m long, and 75 mm wide, with a groove along either edge, into which sharp-edged pieces of flint or obsidian were inserted and firmly fixed with an adhesive. Based on his research, historian John Pohl indicates that the length was just over a meter, although other models were larger, and intended for use with both hands. According to

1155-489: The wound depth from a single blow, and the heavy wooden construction allows weakened opponents to be easily clubbed unconscious with the flat side of the weapon. The art of disabling opponents using an un-bladed macuahuitl as a sparring club was taught from a young age in the Aztec Tēlpochcalli schools. The macuahuitl had many drawbacks in combat versus European steel swords. Despite being sharper, prismatic obsidian

1190-459: Was a standard close combat weapon. Use of the macuahuitl as a weapon is attested from the first millennium CE, although specimens can be found in art dating to at least pre-classic times. By the time of the Spanish conquest the macuahuitl was widely distributed in Mesoamerica . The weapon was used by different civilisations including the Aztec (Mexicas), Olmec , Maya , Mixtec , Toltec , and Tarascans . One example of this weapon survived

1225-468: Was swung and then dragged backwards upon impact, creating a sawing motion. This led Max Geiger, the computer programmer of the series, to refer to the weapon as "the obsidian chainsaw". This may have been due to the unrefined obsidian cutting edges of the weapon used in the show, compared with more finely made prismatic obsidian blades , as in the Madrid specimen. Macana The term macana , of Taíno origin, refers to various wooden weapons used by

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