obsidian core
 

This is an obsidian core used to produce the long thin blades found on Mesoamerican war clubs. It was collected by my grandfather who typed the label sometime in the early seventies. The goal of most warfare of the time was to spill as much blood as possible, while capturing live captives potentially as additional sacrifices. There were wars over territory and resources just as there are today, but most battle appears to have been closer to a sporting event with lots of blood but not much killing by today’s standards. The thin obsidian blades were sharper than any steel, but would generally have produced shallow clean slices without much internal damage.

An interesting object, thanks for posting. Obsidian also having being used historically as a weapon point/edge in some parts of Melanesia.

I am amazed at the skill shown in this core. They are not uncommon artifacts, but this is the slimmest I have seen. The original would have been a flawless, slightly tapered cylinder. Each blade would have been flaked off by hitting along the edge at either end, producing slightly curved flakes a few millimeters thick. The final form shown here was the discarded center that is now too thin to produce any more blades. By the end of the process, going by the flake scars, each blade would have been about ten centimeters long, and a only half centimeter or less wide. Try doing that with glass. :eek:

Many Mesoamericans used this technique over a wide period of time. This example is probably Zapotec or Mixtec from between 500 and 2500 years ago.

Oh thank you so much for posting this. I have always been fascinated by the club-swords used by the Aztecs and Mayans. :D