[SunkenCiv]

WHEELS OF WONDER: A wheeled figurine from the New World, probably made in Veracruz between 100 B.C. and 800 A.D. Image: madman2001 | Creative Commons

[Grizzled Bear]

The invention of Beer was critical in the invention of the wheel. After inventing Beer, primitive man needed the wheel to transport the Beer to the pig roast.

[Elsiejay]

But why did the people found living in what is now called North America when Europeans arrived in significant numbers, beginning in the 1300s or thereabouts (pick your own century), seemingly not know about the wheel?

[Elsiejay]

But why did the people found living in what is now called North America when Europeans arrived in significant numbers, beginning in the 1300s or thereabouts (pick your own century), seemingly not know about the wheel?

[SatinDoll]

Uh...no.

Wheels existed in the subcontinent of India long before 3500 bc.

Archaeology just ignores India. Indian archaeologists insist that humans go back at least a million years. This is not popular with western academics who have their “professional reputations” to protect.

[I see my hands]

Any excuse to post this pic will do.

[Ditto]

I always thought the 'wheel' would be an intuitive kind of thing... just watching rocks rolling down hill. It was putting two of them together via an axle that was the stroke of genius.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to that caveman who conceived the axle. Nice job dude!

[bunkerhill7]

Any farm boy knows an oak tree trunk or limb have naturally hollowed centers that the squirrels run up n down. All you gotta do is break off the limb or saw the trunk in 2 places and stick another branch between `em both and voila!

from Scientific American below:
``Whoever invented it must have had access to wide slabs of wood from thick-trunked trees in order to carve large, round wheels.``

Well duhh, Professor Anthony — trees are naturally ROUND, you idiot!

[occamrzr06]

I thought the real genius was putting the wheel on its side, jamming a pole in it and watching the cave hootchies pole dance.

Perhaps that was a later era.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I think they may be way off in their estimation of the origin of the wheel. The reason being that even in the very ancient world, there was a lot of engineering aptitude far beyond what people today imagine.

For example, years ago, scientists at the Smithsonian figured out a simple, low tech way the ancient Egyptians could have built the 138 known pyramids of Egypt, in a fraction of the time, with far less manpower than assumed.

Based on a naturally occurring pyramid-shaped geological formation, that likely gave them the idea. The earliest of these were built around 2630 BC, and there can be seen an engineering evolution from that primitive pyramid, to the great pyramids of Giza, about 2560 BC, just 70 years later, which were much more complex and finished.

The scientists at the Smithsonian figured out that with just 8 pieces of wood, held together with pegs, the giant stones could essentially be turned into cylinders. When combined with the dirt ramp technology they had mastered, as well as boats to take the great stones from the quarry to the construction site, labor was just fractional to what it would have had to have been to muscle around giant, rectangular cubes.

Just keep increasing the ramp, and when the capstone is put on top, take away the dirt leaving the fully formed pyramid.

But according to the article, the wheel and axle was invented just a thousand years earlier than that.

[Rocky]

How disappointing. Not one mention of Fred Flintstone in that article.

[Altariel]

For the last time, it wasn't because I accidentally deliberately perhaps destroyed the first prototype! That's a vicious, baseless rumor!

[zeestephen]

Interesting article.

Anyone know which came first - the wheel, or the building arch?

Seems like one could be readily deduced from the other.

I’ve always been surprised that there is no evidence that New World natives used stone wheels for grinding or for food processing.

As the Southern societies grew in size, it seems almost essential to have that kind of labor saving device.

I’m also surprised the Southern New World never figured out the water wheel, which could have dramatically improved productivity in cutting and shaping structural stone and lumber.

[zeestephen]

Speaking of Wheels..... 285 micrometer racecar, "printed" at the Vienna University of Technology, using "two-photon lithography." Read entire article at ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120312101918.htm

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Pre-Columbian Wheels

http://www.precolumbianwheels.com/

[BenLurkin]

I have long suspected that that artifact is a hoax.