[Aztlan] "The Maya had no Wheel...."

[Robert Evans]

Kim C. Goldsmith, Ph.D. said ->  “I've been studying the clay figurines here
at Teotihuacan for over 25 years now, so I am very familiar with these
little critters (they are usually animal effigies).  They have four wheels
and a space for two axles; you put a string through them, pull them around
and they work just fine.”

We modern folks automatically assume two axles. But it could just as well
have been four. One axle per wheel. A two wheel single axle where the wheels
roll independently of the axle is quite complicated and requires hubs. Yes,
those “toys” may well have used one axle for two wheels, with hubs but
single wheels on fixed axle probably came before the two wheel free rolling
setup. Technological evolution by definition progresses from the simpler to
the more complicated, and a one piece wheel with a stubby axle on each side
would have almost invented itself. 

->”In my opinion it is simply ridiculous to look at the complex technology
that these civilizations had and then think that they could figure out the
wheel on a "mini-scale" but never employ it to help haul some of the stone,
dirt, etc. around!”

Quite right. It took an awful lot of fill dirt to make those temples. Lines
of villagers, paying tribute, following tracks for miles with sacks of dirt
on their backs held by head-straps. The argument that labour was so
plentiful that there was no pressing need to economize it, is specious. No
matter how plentiful, a labour saving device would have freed labour for
other activities or hastened the completion of the project. The argument,
reiterated by Marcos Villaseñor, that four wheeled carts trundled along
muddy paths would have been impractical particularly without beasts of
burden might be valid. 

But what about wheel barrows? 
They already had designed most of a wheel barrow. Those sled-like wheel-less
carts pulled along, sometimes by dogs, are essentially a wheel barrow
missing the wheel. Now they certainly knew about rolling. The bigger
calendars would have been rolled from where they were made to where they
were used. Petrospheres from the Diquis region, some as heavy as 16 tons,
were obviously rolled. Tops, spindles, tattoo rollers etc etc all
demonstrated rolling. How much of a leap would it have been to take one of
the sled-carts and add a simple single wheel with stubby axle on each side?
I can visualize them pulling their barrows up the hill with head straps and
keeping the balance with the sticks on each side. Pure speculation? True.
Never seen on pottery or frescoes? True. But tedious slave labour was not
exactly an important enough activity to be immortalized next to Kings and
Gods.

Robert Evans
revans at atoda.com
<>-----Original Message-----
<>From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-
<>bounces at lists.famsi.org] On Behalf Of villas
<>Sent: August 13, 2006 4:07 AM
<>To: kim Goldsmith
<>Cc: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
<>Subject: Re: [Aztlan] "The Maya had no Wheel...."
<>
<>
<>On Aug 12, 2006, at 6:04 PM, kim Goldsmith wrote:
<>
<>> I'm with Robert Evans and company.  I think one of the
<>> strongest indications we have that the prehispanic
<>> cultures did indeed have the wheel come in the form of
<>> the ceramic wheeled figurines.
<>
<>Yes, we know they had toys with wheels for children, we also know they
<>didn't have large animals to pull carts. If we consider this two
<>together we can safely say that  their wheel production would have been
<>limited to special projects and not everyday usage.
<>
<>Marcos Villaseñor
<>
<>
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