Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and
Speaker 1: moments in time. Artifacts have long enabled human beings to
Speaker 1: create for themselves the defensive and offensive features found naturally
Speaker 1: elsewhere in the animal kingdom. We lacked the talent, but
Speaker 1: invented the dagger, devised in our minds and created with
Speaker 1: our hands. Weapons and armor of some sort can be
Speaker 1: found everywhere humans spread throughout the world. In many cases,
Speaker 1: the form and function of traditional weapons are much the same,
Speaker 1: but there's still a huge variety in materials and form.
Speaker 1: One of the more fascinating specimens of human weaponcraft is
Speaker 1: the maqui eedle of Mesoamerica. In the Nawatto language, the
Speaker 1: name means hand would, and it's served as a ferocious
Speaker 1: weapon for various peoples of this region, including the Maya,
Speaker 1: the Toltecs, and the Aztecs. The maquahedle may be described
Speaker 1: in various ways, often comparing it to other tools and weapons.
Speaker 1: As the name seems to imply, it is a handheld
Speaker 1: length of shaped wood. Some seventy centimeters long a little
Speaker 1: over two feet, It was wielded with two hands, though
Speaker 1: a shorter variation also existed. The tendency here, of course,
Speaker 1: is to compare the weapon to either a club or
Speaker 1: a sword, and this was certainly the case when Spanish
Speaker 1: forces first observed the maquahedle during the sixteenth century. But
Speaker 1: this is a weapon of wood, not metal, unlike the
Speaker 1: typical sword. Yet early Western commentators noted its exceptional cutting ability.
Speaker 1: This due to the six to eight blades of obsidians
Speaker 1: set into the weapon on two sides. As such, it
Speaker 1: is easy to think of it as a toothed blade,
Speaker 1: or is it a toothed club or mace? As pointed
Speaker 1: out by Marco Antonio severa are Gone in his two
Speaker 1: thousand and six paper the Maquahito, An Innovative Weapon of
Speaker 1: the Late post Classic in Mesoamerica, published in Arms and Armor,
Speaker 1: it is perhaps far more reasonable to consider it neither,
Speaker 1: he writes quote. The maquahito cannot be called a club
Speaker 1: since it did not fulfill a bruising function, and it
Speaker 1: cannot be called a sword since the sword's characteristic functions
Speaker 1: are to pierce and to cut. As such, Overgone argues
Speaker 1: that the Maquahito is a uniquely Mesoamerican weapon with no
Speaker 1: Western counterpart. He also points out that the origins of
Speaker 1: the weapon are murky. There has been some confusion regarding
Speaker 1: the classification of similar weapons, and there is both much
Speaker 1: that was lost to the destruction brought by the Europeans
Speaker 1: and much that remains archaeologically undiscovered. But it seems the
Speaker 1: weapon emerged between the early and late Post Classic period
Speaker 1: in central Mexico as a response to changing battlefield necessities.
Speaker 1: Archaeological evidence of the weapon technology is scant, but the
Speaker 1: best known original example of a maquehedal was destroyed in
Speaker 1: a fire at the Royal Armory in Madrid, Spain, back
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty nine. But based on accounts, artistic depictions
Speaker 1: and recreations, it seems the weapon was indeed quite fearsome.
Speaker 1: The sharpened blades were more than capable of slicing through
Speaker 1: flesh and even fracturing bone, though the obsidian would have
Speaker 1: broken on contact with the bone. Is Obregon points out
Speaker 1: the shattering of the blade's edge in these instances would
Speaker 1: have created micro flakes of obsidian that would have made
Speaker 1: healing all the more difficult for the victim, but the
Speaker 1: wooden form of the weapon would remain strong. While some
Speaker 1: of the blades would break from impact, they would remain
Speaker 1: set in the wood, and the maquehedral would remain a
Speaker 1: viable weapon for the remainder of the bloody battle. Tune
Speaker 1: in for additional editions of the artifact each week, hosted
Speaker 1: by either Joe or myself. As always, you can email
Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I
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