Macuahuitl (obsidian-edged club)
Macuahuitl (espada de obsidiana)
- Date
- c. century X (atestiguado desde el primer milenio d.C.; uso documentado: century XVI) · confidence low
- Place
- Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico
- Credited to
- Peoples of the central Mexican highlands (Toltecs, Mexica)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden club with grooved edges set with obsidian blades, so sharp that according to chroniclers it could decapitate a horse. It was the characteristic shock weapon of Mexica warriors.
Its use is attested from the first millennium AD and Preclassic depictions are cited; the first unambiguous images and their chronology are debated. The detailed description comes from 16th-century chroniclers and almost no original specimens survive (the one in Madrid's Royal Armoury was lost in a fire in 1884).
What it led to
- Mexica combat tactics against the conquistadors
- obsidian-edged weapons such as the tepoztopilli
- ritual and military symbol of power in codices