Jul 2, 2023 05:06 PM
https://bigthink.com/the-past/aztec-inca...invention/
EXCERPT: . . . It had long been assumed that ancient Americans didn’t use wheels because they didn’t know how to make them. That turned out to be false. In 1880, as archaeologist Désiré Charnay excavated the tomb of an Aztec child in Mexico City, he came across a small coyote figurine mounted on an even smaller set of wheels. Since then, other wheeled toys have been found across the country. Most belonged to the Toltecs, whose culture flourished between 900 and 1100 AD.
Current explanations of why the Aztecs, Incas, Maya, and Native Americans lacked wheels focus not on the knowledge of how to create them — which they clearly possessed — but on practicality. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention, and ancient Americans just didn’t have the same need for wheeled vehicles that Eurasians did. Why? One major reason is that the continent was devoid of creatures strong enough to pull them. After all, horses, cows, and oxen crossed the Atlantic along with the wheel itself.
Another important factor in this equation was geography. Yes, the Incas built roads, but those roads were mapped out over the hilly terrain of the Andes mountains. They featured giant staircases and suspension bridges that wheeled vehicles would not have been able to traverse. Instead, the Incas used a combination of human couriers and llamas, which are excellent climbers and still can be found grazing on the slopes of Machu Picchu today.
The same is true for other civilizations: In the Mayan Yucatán, rural areas only could be reached via narrow footpaths, while the marketplaces in the Aztec cities of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan could be accessed with canoes, which according to early Spanish observers were found on lakes and causeways throughout the empire. A similar explanation has been given for why the Polynesians, another ancient civilization with a predominantly aquatic lifestyle, never used wheels... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . It had long been assumed that ancient Americans didn’t use wheels because they didn’t know how to make them. That turned out to be false. In 1880, as archaeologist Désiré Charnay excavated the tomb of an Aztec child in Mexico City, he came across a small coyote figurine mounted on an even smaller set of wheels. Since then, other wheeled toys have been found across the country. Most belonged to the Toltecs, whose culture flourished between 900 and 1100 AD.
Current explanations of why the Aztecs, Incas, Maya, and Native Americans lacked wheels focus not on the knowledge of how to create them — which they clearly possessed — but on practicality. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention, and ancient Americans just didn’t have the same need for wheeled vehicles that Eurasians did. Why? One major reason is that the continent was devoid of creatures strong enough to pull them. After all, horses, cows, and oxen crossed the Atlantic along with the wheel itself.
Another important factor in this equation was geography. Yes, the Incas built roads, but those roads were mapped out over the hilly terrain of the Andes mountains. They featured giant staircases and suspension bridges that wheeled vehicles would not have been able to traverse. Instead, the Incas used a combination of human couriers and llamas, which are excellent climbers and still can be found grazing on the slopes of Machu Picchu today.
The same is true for other civilizations: In the Mayan Yucatán, rural areas only could be reached via narrow footpaths, while the marketplaces in the Aztec cities of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan could be accessed with canoes, which according to early Spanish observers were found on lakes and causeways throughout the empire. A similar explanation has been given for why the Polynesians, another ancient civilization with a predominantly aquatic lifestyle, never used wheels... (MORE - missing details)