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

[john.pastore]

Ed Hanna wrote:

"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.'"

Deduction certainly has its application in the realm of
deducing the existance of phenomena which, though invisible,
requires no invention to exist. But in the case of the wheel?
Which, until its invention, could not have existed?

It seems you are saying that because we can concieve (like a
black-hole) of a donut (wheel) turned inside out, others
should have conceived the donut (wheel) not turned inside out.

Moreover, the realization of practical application is
conception itself. Weren't many of today's more recent
'inventions' once nothing more than idle, toy-like curiosities
awaiting the conception of greater practical application?

Until we conceive of a practical application for "black-holes"
cannot a future society regard us as even not having the
inventiveness to have conceived anything pass idle, toy-like
curiosity for something that, to them, may have become as
basic as the wheel is to us?

'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?'

Perhaps because you are assuming 'roadways' rather than mere
'pathways.'

As for "reasons"? The first to come to mind, which come to
mind from years of (painful) experience treading the Yucatan:

1) Footing: With even the thickest soled sandals or boots,
there is no relief from the sheer punishment, and danger, to
the bones of one's feet from the sharp, absolutely punishing
jaggedness of the peninsula's karst surface.

So poked, arched, spread, twisted and pounded with every step
are one's feet that it becomes as second nature to look, reach
for and tread even the sparsest lengths of the relief that any
smoother surface can offer a karst-walker as any surer and
safer footing would be to any mountain climber and, any
(without any exageration---though in reverse) hard surface
would be to anyone treading even quicksand.

2) Clearance: One of my friends in Coba was on the original
journey from Coba to Yaxuna which, in 1974, traced the sacbe
between those two sites. If I recall correctly, he said it
took them six weeks to hack their way through with steel
machetes. I believe the same distance, on the same walk-way,
comfortably surfaced and essentially cleared, would take less
than three days.

3) Accomodation: As with any well signaled trail certain
accomodations would be attached: the availability of water,
shelter and even food.

3) Esthetics: Just as the ball courts were, one way or the
other, oriented to their sacred calendar so were the sacbes.

In short, even without the invention of the wheel, the
well-paved pathway had even irresistable advantage.

Cheers,
John

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