Macuahuitl

3D Model

Famous among Mesoamerican cultures of the Late Postclassic period, the macuahuitl was one of the most feared and emblematic weapons of its time. It consisted of a wooden club with prismatic obsidian blades set into its upper edges. Today, only two archaeological specimens are known: one found in Mexico City and another in the Royal Armoury of Madrid. The latter was mistakenly classified as part of an Asian suit of armor and was destroyed in the fire that struck the Armoury in 1884. The Macuahuitl Project draws on sixteenth-century codices and chronicles, along with two nineteenth-century catalogues of the Armoury, to produce a 3D reconstruction of the weapon reduced to ashes. The research accompanying the digital reconstruction shows how imperial collecting misinterpreted and ultimately lost a unique piece, while also gathering multiple interpretations woven around the history of an object that eludes our attempts to revive it.