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

[Edward B. Hanna]

On 14 Aug 2006, at 3:07 PM, Craig Berry wrote:

> On Mon, 14 Aug 2006, bertram perkel wrote:
>
>> It is a basic tenet of the scientific method that the absence of
>> proof can never support a hypothesis that anything exists or does not
>> exist.
>
> Absolutely.  But that's what makes the mesoamerican wheel such a  
> puzzle.
> If the wheel were utterly nonexistent in mesoamerica, that would be  
> mildly
> surprising but relatively easily explainable.  If it were in common  
> use as
> a practical tool (as evidenced by artistic depictions, or still better
> actual wheeled artifacts or identifiable debris from such), that would
> certainly be very easy for us to understand.
>
> What makes this case so fascinating is that we have the 'toy' wheeled
> artifacts -- which indisputably demonstrate that the idea of wheels  
> and
> axles was available to at least some mesoamerican cultures -- but no
> evidence of its *ever* being exploited in any other way, despite  
> the clear
> utility of e.g. carts and wheelbarrows in performing many tasks we  
> know
> these people performed.
>
> These cultures included demonstrably brilliant engineers and  
> craftsmen who
> eagerly incorporated countless technological refinements into common
> practice.  So we're left with only two reasonable explanations:
>
> 1) Wheels *were* in common use, but left no archaeological traces  
> (that
>    we have found so far, anyway).
>
> 2) Wheels were not in common use due to some cultural or technological
>    factor we have not yet discovered.
>
> Either way, it's a fascinating puzzle.
>

While absence of evidence is not evidence of an absence, inferences  
can be drawn from the existence of a result that can only be brought  
about by the existence of a specific cause.  For example, there is no  
visual evidence of 'black holes' in space, yet their existence is  
almost universally accepted because of certain astronomic phenomena  
that can only be caused by the pull of a highly magnetic, though  
invisible 'something.'

I submit that the existence of paved sacbeob infers the very  
existence of wheeled conveyances.  Why else go to the trouble of  
constructing roadways –– several of them quite wide and lengthy ——  
where simple jungle paths would suffice, if not to accommodate a  
wheeled means of transportation?
––

/Ed
––––––––––––––––––––––-
  Edward B. Hanna
  edwbhanna at comcast.net
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