Anthropologists and archaeologists have given many reasons. At the end of the day they are as confounded as I am that civilizations that invented the zero concept and accomplished so much failed to utilize the wheel for anything beyond children’s toys or religious objects.

Here are some of the reasons given:

1. No beasts of burden – The Llama was as good as it got and while they were used as pack animals, they were too fragile to pull heavy loads even on a wheeled vehicle.
2. Bad geography- They had flat lands but they were irregular and muddy, unsuited for wheeled traffic.
3. Roads- They had roads for foot traffic but the material used and the soil conditions would not have stood up to heavy wheeled traffic.
4. No metal- They would have had to rely on all wood construction.
5. Religion- Some Anthropologists believe that the small wheeled artifacts found are not toys but religious objects indicating that perhaps the wheel was symbolic of the sun and not appropriate for use as a tool.

The first three are cop-outs imo, thousands were killed hauling stone on rollers and while rollers might be superior to wagons in some cases, I can’t believe that wheeled vehicles would not have been useful. They built roads for foot traffic. If they can build pyramids they can build better roads.

No metallurgy and smelting is another mystery. They used gold and even gold alloys. There is evidence of smelting and some experimenting with brass, copper, and iron, but the creation of useful metals never caught on. Some believe they were impatient with rust in their humid climate.

I have to question the religious factor. Humans have always found a way around this kind of thing when it gets in the way of progress.

Just another puzzle to keep my mind off of politics.