Wish they'd share how they determined that ...
Guess the proto-Atabs were like the Mayans: invent the wheel -- but only use it on toys...
Wish they'd share how they determined that ...
Guess the proto-Atabs were like the Mayans: invent the wheel -- but only use it on toys...
Making a wheel is easy.
The tricky part is making the axel (which includes wheel alignment).
As someone pointed out the other day, there was a dearth of beasts of burden (other than other humans); also, it may just be an old saw from some old carpenter that the wheel was unknown for such use. Also, people who live in the Andes may not have liked their first wheeled carts when they got loose and took the cargo rocketing down the path and off a cliff. :^)
A good thing too. You might have killed someone.
I was only using the wheel as an analolgy for life-changing technologies (fluting) that were invented but never employed practically until by later cultures.
I realized your intended reference. I just find the reference interesting and the misconception of most people that the wheel and wheeled carts is somehow an obvious and simple concept.
And your reference to the Mayans who had wheeled toys but not carts. The transition from toys to carts is not immediately obvious because of the point I made about axels. Many other cultures also had wheeled toys long before true carts.
One must also consider that good roads are necessary to make use of carts effectively. Consider that in Japan cart were forbidden for use on the Emperor’s roads because they caused ruts and made marching troops on them more difficult.
The famous roads of the Roman Empire were made specifically because the Romans realized the necessity of good roads for baggage carts and wagons in supplying their armies. (Again, the use of the wheel as a weapon of war. If you can’t supply an army with food and weapons you will lose to the foe that can)