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The goals and motives of warfare in Maya culture are not thoroughly understood, but scholars have developed models for Maya warfare based on several lines of evidence, including fortified defenses around structure complexes, artistic and epigraphic depictions of war, and the presence of weapons such as obsidian blades and projectile points in ...
A drawing from the Catalog of the Royal Armoury of Madrid by the medievalist Achille Jubinal in the 19th century. The original specimen was destroyed by a fire in 1884. The maquahuitl (Classical Nahuatl: māccuahuitl, other orthographic variants include mākkwawitl and mācquahuitl; plural māccuahuimeh), [4] a type of macana, was a common weapon used by the Aztec military forces and other ...
Weapons used by the Maya included spear-throwers known as atlatls, blowguns, obsidian spiked clubs, spears, axes, lances and knives tipped with flint or obsidian blades. [22] Bow and arrows were also used, but not as extensively. [ 21 ]
Most warriors were not full-time, however, and were primarily farmers; the needs of their crops usually came before warfare. [73] Maya warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder. [74] Maya warriors entered battle against the Spanish with flint-tipped spears, bows and arrows and stones.
Maya armies of the Contact period were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service. Maya states did not maintain standing armies; warriors were mustered by local officials who reported back to appointed warleaders.
The Maya preferred raiding and ambush to large-scale warfare, using spears, arrows and wooden swords with inset obsidian blades; the Xinca of the southern coastal plain used poison on their arrows. In response to the use of Spanish cavalry, the highland Maya took to digging pits and lining them with wooden stakes.
Having been deprived of its military reputation Calakmul lost its northern provinces and collapsed, the last recorded date in the city was 899, possibly 909. Similarly Tikal, and most of the Maya cities were destroyed in the Maya collapse. The war may have contributed to the collapse, along with overpopulation, disease, famine, and others.
These weapons are predominantly used in ritual warfare and generally date to the Postclassic period. Earlier depictions of obsidian is usually restricted to their appearance as razors or lancets , and it is commonly believed that the material was not associated with weapons such as clubs or spears until later phases in Mesoamerica.