Weapons

To discuss adequately the weapons used in Mesoamerica as well as those mentioned in the Book of Mormon requires some linguistic orientation. Consider the label sword for example. Hamblin and Merrill noted that “although in one sense sword is a common English word, in reality a vast variety of weapons . . . exist that can be categorized as swords.” All discourse about ancient weapons is more or less limited by such imprecise labeling. Our task here is not with defining as such but with equivalence; what we shall take as a sword will be a weapon that serves like a sword, a sharp smiting/cutting implement. In many cases we will rely on descriptions by the Spanish conquerors. If they called a native Mexican weapon a “sword” (espada), we accept the similarity as mediated by their experienced eyes and refrain from quibbling about verbal definitions.

The weapons used according to the Nephite record were swords, “cimeters” (English, scimitars), javelins, bows and arrows, darts, axes, clubs, stones, slings, and spears (Jarom 1:8; Alma 2;12; Helaman 1;14). (Knives go unmentioned, through perhaps they are implied by uses of the verb stab, but Hassig comments in regard to the Aztecs that “knives are rarely mentioned as weapons of war.”) Most of these named weapons have obvious parallels in Mesoamerican armament, but some deserve special mention to clarify the correspondences.

The clearest parallel to Book of Mormon “swords” is the Aztec macuahuitl, a sort of wooden club with rows of razor-sharp obsidian chips along two sides. The Spanish conquistadors consistently called these weapons espadas (swords) and considered them in certain ways superior to their own metal swords. Certain other sharp-edged weapons known from Mesoamerica could also qualify as swords. Book of Mormon “cimeters” have been compared persuasively to several curved, sharp-edged weapons in use in Mesoamerica as seen in art.

A potential linguistic tie involving a weapon in the Near East and among the Maya adds interest to this cultural parallel. The obsidian-edged sword that the Aztec called macuahuitl was called by the Maya hadzab. In Hebrew a phonetically similar word, ḥṣb means “to hew” (chop).

Two minor correspondences involving swords in the Book of Mormon are at least interesting and perhaps significant. In one case the author reports that a sword-bearer who had unintentionally cut off the scalp of an enemy (who survived) “took up the scalp from off the ground by the hair, and laid it upon the point of his sword” (Alma 44:13). The Aztec sword (the macuahuitl) does not normally have a “point” on the end, but instances are known where this is the case (e.g., see the pointed macuahuitl in the representation of a warrior from Loltun Cave, Yucatan, which is Pre-Classic in date (fig. 18.1). In light of this weapon form, to “lay” a scalp on the “point” makes sense because the broad triangular point would probably not have permitted one to spear the scalp up from off the ground.

Another correspondence refers to Lamanite swords in the land of Nephi. Upon converting to the Nephite religion, people eschewed further violence, saying, “Let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren” (Alma 24:12). Wooden swords inset with rows of obsidian chips, as was the macuahuitl type, would have become stained by blood soaking into the wood; had their swords been made of metal, the metaphor would lose its power.

One odd-shaped weapon that has no established name in English has been called a “curved double dagger.” No specific mention of this artifact appears in the Book of Mormon, yet it is of interest here in relation to the Near Eastern origin of the people of that account. This weapon was grasped by a handle that connected curved blades that protruded in both directions. Roper (fig. 18.2) shows this weapon being wielded by the male figure on Kaminaljuyu Stela 11. An armament of exactly the same exotic shape was used in ancient Syria, where it was called a haladie.

The Book of Mormon lists the bow and arrow among the weapons employed by the Nephites and Lamanites. In fact, the text provides a historical link for derivation of the weapon in Mesoamerica from the Near East. Nephi1 and his brothers carried hunting bows with them on the trek from Jerusalem into Arabia on the way to America (1 Nephi 16;14, 18-23). Soon afterward Lamanite hunters in “the promised land” (presumably in southern Mesoamerica) are credited with depending on that device (Enos 1:20).

Some scholars question the antiquity of the bow and arrow in Mesoamerica. Hassig, who takes an evolutionary view of the development of military technology in Mesoamerica, doubts that early cultures had the bow and some other weapons known from late in the sequence. But MacNeish and others supposed that archaeological evidence from the Tehuacán Valley in Mexico—the size of excavated stone points—showed use of the bow and arrow by around the time of Christ. According to Müller, the bow and arrow combination is manifested at Teotihuacán from period III (AD 300) on, but Tolstoy found a graffito on a potsherd of Teotihuacán II date (ca. AD 200) that appears to show a man holding a bow and arrow.

Regardless of particular artifact finds or artistic representations, there is considerable reason to believe that pretty much the same war complex known from late Mesoamerican cultures had great time depth and may be assumed to have been present in the Pre-Classic. As previously mentioned, Redmond reported from the Cuicatlan Cañada in south-central Mexico the remains of a “skull rack” like that of the Aztecs. Dated between 300 BC and AD 200, Redmond’s find is a demonstration of the continuity and conservatism of the Mesoamerican warfare complex for at least 1,500 years. Thus “late” (Aztec) technology, including the bow and arrow as well as the skull rack, may well have been present a very long time before the Spanish conquest. In a like vein, the Aztec macuahuitl appears in the Olmec art dated at least 2,500 years before the Spaniards arrived.

At three places in the Book of Mormon, reference is made to arrows that were “cast” or “thrown” (Alma 49;4, 19, 22). A small arrow used with a regular bow would not fit with any such phrasing, but for a larger “arrow” (perhaps a “dart,” Jarom 1:8) such an expression makes perfectly good sense. The Aztec atlatl (spear-thrower) consisted of a stick with a hooked end that was held extended in the hand with a large spearlike arrow placed to about on the hook; the length of the stick added to the extended arm greatly increased the force with which a heaver projectile could be “thrown” at the target. Spanish sources said these weapons were so powerful that the point could pierce any (Spanish) armor and still inflict a fatal wound. The devices are pictured in art as early as AD 400 but probably were much older. Thus the statements in the book of Alma about arrows being “cast” or “thrown” against a fortification are operationally sound. The statements reveal the use of a weapon that, although unnamed in Mormon’s history, art history and archaeology indicate could have been used in Mesoamerica in the Nephite era. Any spear-thrower quite certainly would have been unknown to any person of the United States in 1829.

Obsidian was absolutely essential for the preparation of arms (and for much industrial or raft work also), as discussed in chapter 16. The book of Alma indicates that the Lamanites and the Nephites very probably depended on this volcanic glass to manufacture their crucial weaponry. Alma 49:2, 22 informs us that arrows and stones were the chief weapons employed by both the Lamanites and Nephites. It is difficult to imagine that most arrow points were not made of obsidian, for that was the material of choice for that purpose throughout the Americas.

The account in the book of Alma about a group of mutinous Lamanite militiamen seems to describe a situation in which a major obsidian outcrop was located at or near a nearly impregnable safe haven. The Lamanite men fled form the vicinity of the city of Lehi-Nephi to a location not far distant that was called Onidah, “the place of arms” (Alma 47:5). Nearby was Mount Antipas, on top of which they assembled after arming themselves. This “place of arms” (Alma 47:5). Nearby was Mount Antipas, on top of which they assembled after arming themselves. This “place of arms” clearly was in broken country no great distance from the capital city of Lehi-Nephi. One of the most extensive sources of obsidian in Guatemala is the hilly zone called El Chayal, approximately 20 miles northeast of Kaminaljuyu. Spots within the kilometers-wide exposure of obsidian are virtually paved with waste chips where for millennia cutting implements have been shaped by chipping. Another outcrop that was relied upon to some extent in Late Pre-Classic times is located at San Martín Jilotepeque, about the same distance from Kaminaljuyu in a northwesterly direction. These two locations meet the geographical and contextual requirements of the text; thus Onidah and Mount Antipas could have been at or near either place.

One other implement of war featured in the Book of Mormon account is the sling. Of course, it was a common Near Eastern weapon known to the Nephites’ ancestors. The princely son of King Mosiah2 on their expedition into Lamanite country carried slings as part of their normal hunting armament. One of them, Ammon, employed it against bandits (Alma 17:7, 36). He “stood forth and began to cast stones at them with his sling; yea, with mighty power he did sling stones amongst them; and thus he slew a certain number of them insomuch that they began to be astonished at his power” (v. 36). (The victims evidently lacked slings.) The weapon’s effectiveness is not surprising when we learn that an experienced Europeans slinger could cast stones more than 660 feet (200 m); slingstones used by the Roman army could pierce chain mail at 500 paces. A ceramic figuring from western Mexico represents a helmeted warrior preparing to launch a hefty stone with his sling; it dates back to within Book of Mormon times. Lowe reports pertinent archaeological finds—” great pile” of “well-rounded stones of volcanic tuff”—that he was confident were prepared for use in slings; these were found piled on the surface and also in underground caches at sites in Chiapas that date form 100 BC to AD 400, which is near Ammon’s time.