Manufacture of Mesoamerican Prismatic Blades: An Alternative Technique

Abstract

Recent analyses of primary documentary sources have demonstrated that Don Crabtree's technique of prismatic blade manufacture differs significantly from that of the ancient Mexicans. The most widely known of these ethnohistoric descriptions of blademaking, as well as several previously not considered, are reevaluated and compared to the Crabtree technique. Major discrepancies between the Aztec technique and that described by Crabtree then became the focus of replication experiments. Finally, prismatic blades were successfully produced in the manner and with the tool described by the early Spanish friars.