[Aztlan] WHEELS - My Last Contribution on this Subject.

[kim Goldsmith]

Dear Listeros:

The topic of the use of wheels in ancient Mesoamerica
has generated quite a response here on AZTLAN. 
Moreover, my personal mailbox has been flooded with
e-mails both "for" and "against" my opinion.

I believe that each person deserves an idividual
response, which up to this point I have complied with.
 However, due to lack of spare time on my part it is
no longer possible for me to answer all these letters.

It is for this reason that I would like to post here
the last letter I wrote to someone who was in the
"against" camp.  I chose this particular one because
the letter it answers (not included here) sums up the
types of misconceptions most of the letters similar to
it basically encompassed.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


You are so right that "wishing doesn't make it so". 
As for the scientific method, I'm afraid that
archaeology (at least here in Mesoamerica) is
PRIMARILY all about "absence of proof".  To start off
with, it is rare that a site is ever "entirely"
excavated, and even with the most extensive and
thorough digging, climate and time are usually not
kind to any artifacts that may by CHANCE be left
behind to be found.

This is a problem that I believe is held by the
general public as well as by many archaeologists (and
in some cases schools of archaeology): The belief that
archaeology is the be-all and end-all, and that you
can PROVE, beyond a shadow of a doubt, so much in this
discipline.

Archaeology is NOT a hard science.  We are working at
a deficit, at best.  Our best methods and highest
levels of training sometimes just aren't enough to
truly understand the enigmas of many aspects of
ancient civilizations.

And again, I present to you the FACT upon which I base
my line of thinking: The prehispanic peoples DID,
ABSOLUTELY, have wheeled objects on what we would
consider to be a miniature scale.  We find them, we
can touch them, and many of the artifacts they are
attached to still work!  The rest of their technology
is advanced enough to imply that they would have had
the intelligence and capability to adapt the wheel for
a larger implement.

If you re-read my postings, I have never suggested
anything like the use of super-highways or mass
transit with the use of wheels.  But I AM suggesting
that they were probably used to some extent as carts
or "wheelbarrows", pushed or pulled by humans
(although probably not at all Mesoamerican sites).

Insofar as building goes, it is not unusual in ANY
culture to have provisional walkways, paths,
scaffolding, etc. that is later cleared away when the
building process is completed (the removal of which
automatically creates a "lack of proof", as you
suggest).  A couple hundred of meters of something
like that is NOT a big stretch of the imagination, but
it WOULD BE a big help in terms of man-hours and
movement of materials.

At any rate, I don't know what else I can say to you. 
I can tell you that I have done everything a person is
supposed to do as a "qualified archaeologist".  I have
all the degrees, and all the experience (25 years).  I
am not at all interested in "proving my hypothesis". 
I am not writing a book on the subject - - it was
merely an observation of mine that I chose to include
in an online forum.  If my best was not good enough
for you or did not meet your expectations of how an
archaeologist is supposed to think, all I can say is I
wish it were otherwise.

Have a Great Week!

KIM




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