The atlatl was an Aztec weapon used to smite the enemy at range with a variety of darts and spears. (Zeph77 / CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Atlatl, Bow and Arrow, and Sling: Projectile Weapons Here a young man is competing in an Atlatl competition held at Chimney Point, Vermont, US. The atlatl, an Aztec weapon that has few competitors, can launch long darts with extreme negative outcomes. Aztec projectile and shock weapons usually featured this signature glass, as did its most fearsome cudgel, the macauahuitl, which cut short the lives of many Spanish invaders as the ancient Empire fell. In fact, it’s still used today in surgical instruments, owing to its superior sharpness.
3nm obsidian knife skin#
It was extremely strong, with obsidian points able to penetrate animal skin three times more effectively than other materials. Obsidian was also widely incorporated into an array of Aztec weapons.
Religion of the Aztecs: Keeping the Balance in an Unpredictable and Terrifying World. The Lost City of Aztlan – Legendary Homeland of the Aztecs. Three of the Aztec’s nine underworld levels were supposedly characterized with obsidian layers, with one requiring the dead to walk a path of obsidian shards. In Aztec mythology, the god, Tezcatlipoca, who was said to have invented human sacrifice, was closely associated with obsidian. The work tools that helped them build impressive aqueduct systems, pyramids, and which were used in their advanced medical and surgical procedures were all made out of this dark material, which also had ceremonial as well as practical uses. (British Museum / CC BY-SA 3.0 ) Aztec Weapons: Obsidian Instruments of DeathĪztec society was inextricably intertwined with the material known as obsidian, a type of black glass which was found in plentiful supply around the volcanoes of modern-day Mexico they called home. Sacrificial knife, Aztec or Mixtec, Late Postclassic (15th-16th century AD), part of the British Museum collection, London. Despite their technological handicaps, they were incredibly skilled at making a variety of murderous armaments that often competed with the steel-forged armories of their Spanish foes, whose conquest of the Aztecs and their lands represented a grisly and infamous chapter of early American history.Īztec weapons ranged from bows and arrows to advanced knives like this one made of stone. The Aztecs were a native Mesoamerican culture that thrived in the forests, jungles, and plains of Central Mexico from 1300 until 1521, when their capital Tenochtitlan was seized by Hernán Cortés and his legion of Spanish conquistadors.
0 kommentar(er)
