We may have reached peak archaeology now, but human society peaked around A.D. 550 in Mexico
They say that Native Americans never developed the wheel. They clearly did. For sick dog skateboard tricks.
Missionary propaganda. Devalue everything of the host you want to convert
Yeah, it kinda makes you wonder… they clearly knew but AFAIK didn’t bother using it for anything but such toys.
Wheeled carts are not very practical without draught animals to pull them. And the one place they had animals like that, in South America, llamas and the civilizations that utilized them lived in the mountains where wheeled carts aren’t practical either.
Yeah, that is a common theory, but wheel-barrows are extremely useful and have been even utilized for long distance travel: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/the-chinese-wheelbarrow.html
One possible reason for this is the lack of useful draft animals. Even with a cart a person can’t move much more than they can carry, especially across rough terrain. You’ll note that the wheel wasn’t developed in the west until after the domestication of oxen and horses, and since they had both died out in the Americas there wasn’t anything strong enough to pull the carts.
For carrying large amounts of cargo native Americans would use a travois, which could be dragged behind a person or dog or, eventually, a horse.
