I belong to the Military Book Club and I'm very happy with their offerings. I order "Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armour", by Holmes, Ford, Grant, Gilbert and Parker, published by DK. This is a beautiful coffee table sized book with lavish full colour pages of weaponry all throughout history.
Now the only thing I know anything in detail about is Meso-American warfare. I just happen to open the page that shows Aztec weaponry. There is a beautiful sample of a "Maquahuitl", the traditional wooden Aztec sword, studded with obsidian glass blades. They even spelled maquahuitl correctly. There is another beautiful photographic image of a "Tepoztopilli" which is the Aztec thrusting spear, also studded with obsidian blades.
But the book doesn't use the word Tepoztopilli. They call it a throwing spear. What? Aztecs didn't use throwing spears. The authors say this spear was thrown by an atl-atl. No way, this baby is 5 feet long. Atlatls threw a smaller dart-like spear whose name escapes me right now. The spear they show, was a traditional thrusting spear. Due to the serrated obsidian surfaces the Aztecs used them to slash with also.
So the one damned thing I do know about, they get wrong. This 
es me off as now I have a niggling doubt about everything else these guys say. I feel weird because if you look at the author's curriculum vitae, they all seem beyond reproach.
I don't care, they are wrong. There, I feel better now.
Ralph
