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Despite being sharper, prismatic obsidian is also considerably more brittle than steel; obsidian blades of the type used on the macuahuitl tended to shatter on impact with other obsidian blades, steel swords or plate armour. Obsidian blades also have difficulty penetrating European mail. The thin, replaceable blades used on the macuahuitl were ...
Obsidian can be used to make extremely sharp knives, and obsidian blades are a type of glass knife made using naturally occurring obsidian instead of manufactured glass. Obsidian is used by some surgeons for scalpel blades, although this is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans. [61]
Most commonly, volcanic glass refers to obsidian, a rhyolitic glass with high silica (SiO 2) content. [7] Other types of volcanic glass include the following: Pumice, which is considered a glass because it has no crystal structure. Apache tears, a kind of nodular obsidian.
Because obsidian is not natural to Belize, the site of excavation, the obsidian cores were the product of transactions between the Mayans and those in present-day Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. Obsidian blades are the sharpest natural cutting edges known, and after the lithic reduction already fractured blades, the triangular heads were produced.
Obsidian projectile point.. Obsidian is a naturally formed volcanic glass that was an important part of the material culture of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.Obsidian was a highly integrated part of daily and ritual life, and its widespread and varied use may be a significant contributor to Mesoamerica's lack of metallurgy.
Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California and part of Xbox Game Studios.It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones.
The obsidian mirror was a metaphor for rulership and power among the Aztecs. [76] Aztec rulers used a double-sided obsidian mirror to oversee their subjects; by gazing into one side the ruler could see how his subjects were comporting themselves and in the other side his subjects could see themselves reflected back. [ 7 ]
A rough specimen of bloodstone. Heliotropes (from Ancient Greek ἥλιος (hḗlios) 'sun' and τρέπειν (trépein) 'to turn') (also called ematille, Indian bloodstones, or simply bloodstones) are aggregate minerals, and cryptocrystalline mixture of quartz that occurs mostly as jasper or sometimes as chalcedony (translucent).