[josh stout]

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.