Truth be told, I have always been fascinated by
swords. My sword collection began at the
age of three when my parents bought me my first toy He-Man sword. It went everywhere with me; always tucked in
my belt just in case. As I grew older, I
began collecting real swords. Although
my current sword collection may be impressive to some, I am afraid it will not
be complete until I have a real lightsaber in my possession. Maybe one day.
With this background, is it any wonder that some of my
favorite Book of Mormon stories revolve around swords and warfare? From the opening pages of the Book of Mormon,
to the final Nephite battle, swords are everywhere and play a major role in
Nephite civilization. This article will
take a closer look one of the more famous Nephite swords, namely, the sword of
Ammon.
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| The Sword of Laban |
The
Sword of Laban
What struck me when I first learned about Ammon’s
sword was how different it was from the sword of Laban. “Laban’s sword fits nicely into the pattern
of a high-quality Middle Eastern weapon – a sheath, gold hilt, fine
workmanship, and a “blade…of the most precious steel” (1 Nephi 4:9).”[1]
However, the sword of Ammon, as we shall see, was designed much
differently. Originally, after the
family of Lehi arrived in the new world, the Nephites manufactured their swords
after the sword of Laban. In other
words, they likely manufactured steel swords.
Nephi recorded:
And I,
Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many
swords…. And I did teach my people…to work in all manner of wood, and of iron,
and of copper, and of brass, and of steel (2 Nephi 5:14-15).
However, in the words of LDS
scholars Hamblin and Merrill:
“In view
of the evidence of archaeology, it seems possible that after the Nephites moved
inland away from the land of first inheritance, they may have been unable to
discover adequate sources of ore.
Without access to the ore necessary to train the new generation in
extensive metal making skills, their metallurgical technology in some fields
could have been lost after a single generation had passed.”[2]
Or, in the words of BYU’s Matthew Roper:
"Chronologically speaking, steel is never mentioned after Jarom's day (Jarom 1:8). And iron, although known to some of the Zeniffites in the land of Nephi, is never mentioned after Noah's day (Mosiah 11:3, 8). This tends to support the idea that some metallurgical technologies possessed by Nephi and others may have been lost over time."[3]
If this were true, if steel or iron
was no longer available to their society in the quantities they needed for
manufacturing weapons, how did the Nephites make their swords? What material did they use? As one would expect, they adapted to their
surroundings by using the resources that were available to them, which
consisted mainly of wood and rock.
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| Map of Mesoamerica |
A
Mesoamerican Setting
As I discussed in a previous article, “Book of Mormon Geography,”[4] most LDS scholars believe that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. The reasons that I gave in “Book of Mormon Geography” as to why I currently favor a Mesoamerican setting are as follows:
- The only known civilization to occupy the New World between 1500 B.C. and 250 B.C., and whose population numbered in the millions (both Book of Mormon requirements for the Jaredites) were the Olmec’s of Mesoamerica. Thus, the Olmec’s are currently the best known candidate for the Jaredites. Since the Jaredites and Nephites occupied much of the same land, finding the Nephites and Lamanites becomes much easier once we determine who the Jaredites were. The Maya civilization preceded the Olmec’s in Mesoamerica, making them a great candidate for the Nephites and Lamanites.
- Mesoamerica is the only known area in all of North and South America which had civilizations that could read and write between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D., also a requirement of the Book of Mormon text.
- Mesoamerica geography fits very nicely with the geography described in the Book of Mormon. Every river, mountain, sea, hill, lake, and city mentioned in the Book of Mormon is in a great relationship to one another in Mesoamerica. For example, Mesoamerica is the only region in all of North and South America that has a mountain range that runs from east to west and touches two oceans, which is a Book of Mormon requirement (Alma 22:27).
There are many more reasons in addition
to the above, but they will not be discussed here. (For the complete list of
arguments/references for a Mesoamerican setting, see the end of my article
“Book of MormonGeography.”)
How does this information relate to Book
of Mormon sword making? Simple. Knowing where the events in the Book of
Mormon took place can help us determine what types of swords they made.
The
Macuahuitl
According to historians and archeologists, the people who occupied this region of Mesoamerica between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D., used swords called macuahuitls. These were wooden swords, but they were not used as clubs. Instead, they were a slashing weapon, similar to traditional swords. The macuahuitl “consisted of a long, flat piece of hardwood with grooves along the side into which were set and glued sharp fragments of flint or obsidian (volcanic glass).”[5]
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| A Replica of the Maya Macuahuitl |
At first glance, one might think that these wooden swords were less effective than steel swords. However, the volcanic glass in these wooden swords had the potential to be much sharper and cut much deeper than even steel swords. In fact, one of Cortez’s companions in his conquest of central Mexico said that the macuahuitl, “cut worse than a knife.”[6] So sharp in fact, that “in one famous incident, a Maya warrior cut off the head of a Spaniard’s horse with one blow of a macuahuitl.”[7]
The
Sword of Ammon
As it turns out, this wooden sword
fits very nicely into the text of the Book of Mormon. After all, if a Maya warrior could cut off
the head of a horse with one swing, then Ammon would certainly be able to cut
off a Lamanite arm with one blow. Here
is what Habmlin and Merrill had to say about this famous Book of Mormon story:
“Actually
severing an enemy’s forearm or hand with a sword is a difficult task. What will generally occur is that the sword
will cut into the flesh until it reaches the bone, partially severing or
cracking it. However, since the victim’s
arm is free to rotate at the shoulder, the sword will simply push the limb in
the direction of the blow rather than cut deeper into the limb. Thus, in most situations one would expect a
sword to make a deep gash but not actually to sever the arm. In order to sever an arm with a sword, the
sword must be extremely sharp, must be swung swiftly, and must strike against a
limb that is either somehow fixed, or that is moving toward the sword blade.
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| Ammon's Sword (Macuahuitl) |
“Thus
Ammon’s sword technique makes perfect military sense. He waits for the enemy to attack him with his
club. As the club is raised and brought
down swiftly toward Ammon, Ammon swings his sword in a fast powerful blow aimed
at the forearm. The combination of the
attacker’s swing toward Ammon and the
force of Ammon’s own swing is sufficient to sever the forearm. Thus, according to the Book of Mormon, Ammon
waited for precisely the right moment to initiate his arm-severing sword
technique with maximum efficacy against his enemy.”[8]
The
Anti-Nephi-Lehies
Additionally, if the Nephites really
did use macuahuitls rather than steel swords, the story of the
anti-Nephi-Lehies begins to make a little more sense to the reader. After this group of Lamanites was converted
to the gospel, they made a covenant with God that they would shed the blood of their
brethren no more. As a sign of their
covenant, “they did bury [their swords] deep in the earth” (Alma 24:17). The interesting part of this story however, were
the words spoken by this group of Lamanites right before they buried their
swords:
Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath
taken away our stains… let us stain our
swords no more with the blood of our brethren (Alma 24:12; emphasis added).
Can a steel sword be stained? Hardly!
But a wooden sword can be! Perhaps
this scripture in Alma is was meant to be read much more literally than what we
originally thought. According to Roper:
“The
king’s metaphor for redemption that involved stained weapons and their
cleansing might actually be more powerful if it referred to blood-soaked wood
than to a metal or even an obsidian blade.”[9]
How so? Hamblin and Merril noted:
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| Maya (Nephite) warriors with their swords (macuahuitl's). |
“Removing
a bloodstain from wood is virtually impossible since the blood soaks into the
fibers of the wood. Thus the metaphor of
the great mercy of God in removing bloodstains from the swords becomes much
more powerful and understandable if it refers to wood stained with blood, which
only a miracle would remove, rather than if it refers to metal stained with
blood, which a piece of cloth could clean.”[10]
Notes:
[1] Hamblin and Merrill, “Swords in
the Book of Mormon,” Warefare in the Book
of Mormon, p. 334-335.
[2] Hamblin and Merrill, “Swords in
the Book of Mormon,” Warefare in the Book
of Mormon, p. 345.
[3] Roper, FARMS Review of Books, 9/1 (1997): 150.
[4] Brunson, “Book of MormonGeography.”
[5] Roper, “Swords and Cimeters in
the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of
Mormon Studies 8/1 (1999), p. 36.
[6] Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, p. 142-43, as
quoted by Roper, “Swords and Cimeters in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8/1
(1999), p. 36.
[7] Hamblin and Merrill, “Swords in
the Book of Mormon,” Warefare in the Book
of Mormon, p. 341.
[8] Hamblin and Merrill, “Swords in
the Book of Mormon,” Warefare in the Book
of Mormon, p. 335-337.
[9] Roper, “Swords and Cimeters in
the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of
Mormon Studies 8/1 (1999), p. 39.
[10] Hamblin and Merrill, “Swords in
the Book of Mormon,” Warefare in the Book
of Mormon, p. 342-43.