Culture: The typical Mesoamerican “sword” had a blunt end, not a sharp one. It was a slashing weapon, not a thrusting weapon. (See commentary accompanying 2 Nephi 5:14.) This verse, however, specifies the “point of his sword.” Sorenson queries why the soldier did not “spear” the scalp, then acknowledges that “this odd description fails to make clear exactly how the weapon looked.” Matt Roper, a Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) research associate, explains:
Some pre-Columbian “swords” were clearly pointed, as several Mesoamerican codices clearly show. According to Hassig, “Drawings indicate rectangular, ovoid, and pointed designs.” The Mendoza Codex, for example, shows Aztec and Tlaxcalan warriors with pointed, wood-bladed swords. One of the most impressive battle scenes portrayed in Maya art can be found at the three-room palace of Bonampak in Chiapas, Mexico. On the west wall of room 2, “A large leaf-shaped blade with a short handle is brandished by a warrior at the top center left of the battle.” This weapon is clearly pointed. Some Mesoamerican stone-bladed swords were definitely pointed as well. According to Solis, when marching to battle, the Tlaxcalans “carried their Macanas, or two-handed Swords, under the Left Arm, with their Points upward”.… An early representation of a pointed macuahuitl in the right hand of the warrior figure at the Loltun Cave. The structure of this weapon is very similar to the obsidian-pointed macuahuitl held in the hand of a Tlaxcalan noble during Aztec times.