And the wheel. Wonderful thing, that.
It is amazing. Where would we be without the wheel, and all the blessings (clocks, geometry, ...) that flowed from it.
History records the names of royal bastards, but cannot tell us the inventor of flour.
“And the wheel. Wonderful thing, that.”
The “wheel” argument applied to intelligence level is absolutely ignorant. They knew about the wheel, They had game balls hoop games that incorporated the physics of the wheel. They just didn’t need it so why use it? It is very impractical to live nomadic and have to “rely” on the wheel along with the roads, beasts of burden to feed and water, and infrastructure to accommodate the wheel.
Example South America... With no beasts of burden larger than a Llama or Alpaca, why build road systems across the Andes mountains to accommodate the wheel? All they needed were roads big enough for sure footed mountain pack beasts. The Andes were not and are STILL not very friendly to vehicles depending on the wheel.
In survival there is a fine line between the profit and loss of calories gathered and calories burned. Logic dictates you do not waste calories on physical effort you do not really need.
How about lack of metal use in North America? Is that low intelligence too?
They knew about metal, they had native copper that was traded all the way from Canada to South America. But why go through all the work to build a foundry, smelt metal, and forge metal when it wasn’t needed?
No matter where you are you can reach down and find a rock that is workable into a very sharp and capable tool for the task in just half an hour.
Which is actually more intelligent? All the trouble of foundry infrastructure? Or just a few minutes created from a common material laying EVERYWHERE at your feet already? To this day the sharpest scalpels used for less scaring are still made of stone. They are sharper than any metal blades known.
Logical and rational practicality is NOT lack of intelligence.