Mesoamerica: Maya, Inca, and Aztec

The ancient Mayans did not use metal tools because metals were not common to the area that they inhabited.  The tools that they had to work with were very simple.  They used tools such as fire and basalt axes on wood.  Fire was very unpredictable so they switched to basalt axes for a little more precision.  On stone they used tools made of flint, obsidian, granite, limestone, and quartzite.  They also used the technology of the "plumb bob" to judge vertical accuracy.  A heavy weight would hang on a string so that they could see how accurate they were(Neufeldt 452).

The Incans mainly used close ranged weapons for battle. The Incas built their structures without the help of the plumb bob and did not roll heavy stones on logs as the Mayans did.   For use on fine masonry, the Incas had tools of harder stones and bronze chisels.  They also used earthen ramps to raise large stones if more than one row was needed. Unlike the Mayans, the Incas did not use logs to roll their large stones or use the plumb bob for building their constructions.  One thing that they did have in common was that neither used iron tools, rulers, or the square.

The Aztecs had some of the best cutting tools around. They used Andesite, Flint and Obsidian to craft their tools. But they didn’t just use obsidian, andesite and flint for making blades to cut and puncture things, they fashioned some seriously beautiful objects from them too: like fine ear plugs, vessels, and this highly polished obsidian mirror. They got impressive results from the simplest of technologies…

It was only in the last few centuries before the Spanish Conquest that metal-working arrived in Mexico - probably by sea from South America. It was the Tarascans (who were never defeated by the Aztecs and whose lands to the West of the Aztec Empire formed the second biggest state at the time) who were skilled at making copper and bronze tools and even weapons. Copper axes (pic 5), like cocoa beans and cotton capes, were valued by the Aztecs as a kind of ‘currency’ (a bit like money).

Each ancient Aztec weapon was unique, used for a specific purpose - Aztec warfare was a highly organized, complex affair, steeped in ritual and tradition.  We know quite a bit about some of the weapons that were used by the Aztecs, though it appears much of the history has been lost.