Unskilled workers - GIF

[old kodger]

"Everybody knows they just levitated heavy stuff to where they wanted it."

Some mesopotamian inscriptions seem to indicate that that was the case
As nearly as I can remember and quote
"...and he struck the stone with his wand and if flew the length of an arrow's flight"
Who can tell what the "wand" was.

[Isambard]

A three wood?

[marksbug]

air float tables make it awefull eazy to move stuff, Im kinda supprized there are a lot of hoover crafts on the highways,byways&work sites& in general usage.oops hover crafts, the hoovers suck...must use a hoover for parking breaks.

[mklotz]

This one reminds me of how Mesoamerican cultures lacked the wheel. Artifacts point to their use of wheels in childrens' toys, and as pottery wheels, but not for transport. One argument says that using wheels for transport also requires draft animals, which they lacked. They had independently developed written languages, and basic metalworking (gold and a little copper). But no wheelbarrows?

Wooden objects don't survive well in the moist climate of Central America. Egypt had a good climate for wood survival but utilitarian objects like tools are seldom found as grave goods. The Egyptians wrote and drew on almost every available vertical surface yet they seldom portrayed construction work; most of the graffiti is religious magic stuff. (You would think that a major construction project, like a pyramid, would merit a few pictures of how it was done but, so far, none have been found.) The Maya, Aztecs and Incans built on a scale comparable to the Egyptians yet their inscriptions also avoid how-to texts in favor of more religious malarkey.

[Actually, it's the axle, not the wheel that is the big invention. The ancients were using wheel-like rollers to move heavy loads long before somebody hit on the idea of attaching roller slabs to a stick and placing a load on it.]

[old kodger]

And of course the consideration has been made that the "ancients" didn't actually build all these monolithic edifices. We come back to the Ananaki having built them, insofar as they were considered to be gods, that may have given rise to the "religious malarkey". Thou shalt not speak of how this was done.

[Isambard]

Hasn't the Tartarian school of thought, superseded that theory nowadays?

[Jon]

[Actually, it's the axle, not the wheel that is the big invention. The ancients were using wheel-like rollers to move heavy loads long before somebody hit on the idea of attaching roller slabs to a stick and placing a load on it.]

This is a great point about the axle.

I think there had to be isolated instances of Mesoamerican use of carts or barrows of some sort, even if their use wasn't commonplace, or they weren't formally "invented". It just doesn't seem enough of a cognitive leap from a roller to a wheel that nobody would figure it out.

[Toolmaker51]

In the California mining ghost towns, there are examples of old wheelbarrows. I'm sure it depended on what was being moved, but some had no sides, just front and floor. Too late to capitalize staking a plot to mine gold, a fellow [Wheelbarrow Johnny] did next best thing, and he built LOTS of them.
So many in fact.......... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Studebaker

Historically, the wheelbarrow seems a likely early material hauler. The problem might have been load size; small enough to lift in, an unstable one wheel cart. That may have turned out result of the American Indians' type travois. Both use same mechanical advantage of leverage.
Thinking details like rollers evolved into wheels, the hangup would be axles, without means to get some degree of round holes first. I'd bet rollers evolved with a reduced diameter forming an axle first. The earliest probable 'bearings' were notches or saddles, then figured out grease. But it would require fairly smooth surfaces to roll [what does a little pebble do to your floor jack?]. Narrowing it, might have been next. That may have progressed into wheels, after learning to keep them in position.
To me, the real brilliant step? Realization that increased wheel diameter was most effective way to traverse rough paths.

[mklotz]

This is a great point about the axle.

I think there had to be isolated instances of Mesoamerican use of carts or barrows of some sort, even if their use wasn't commonplace, or they weren't formally "invented". It just doesn't seem enough of a cognitive leap from a roller to a wheel that nobody would figure it out.

Yes, indeed. Wheels and pulleys seem so intuitive once one sees rollers and ropes. Construction tools didn't achieve then the cultural significance that tools receive today so they weren't preserved as icons or grave goods. Even when the occasional tool was interred, the fact that it was made of a perishable material meant we'd never see it.

Archaeologists conjecture that the Egyptians erected obelisks by having pullers on the ground pull on ropes strung over A-frames to get the necessary angle to pull the obelisk vertical. If one pictures that, it's not much of a leap to visualize a crude crane.

Also, the Egyptians had beautifully engineered war chariots. They understood how to construct strong, light-weight spoked wheels and suspensions suited to using the chariot floor as a platform for archers firing on the run. If they could demonstrate this level of sophistication for war/sport building wheel barrows or other wheeled devices would have been a doodle. It's true that barrows wouldn't have been useful in the sandy desert but, if you can build the removable scaffolding to build a pyramid, temporary clay or even stone roads would be easy if you were going to spend thirty years at the construction site.

The take away here is: our estimates of the technological sophistication of early peoples are very low because of the durability of their tools and cultures that did not ascribe high value to the efforts of their workers.

[marksbug]

unsung heroes of the past... they knew how to use the tools, that was pased down family to family by working to survive.no need to make a silent picture of them. but things like fictional stories....those had to be drawn out...and embellished upon untill it was no longer what it was.and thats what we have today.lots of fiction with very little reality&truth. the inscribed story was also up to interpretation, but the teller,the listener and the inscriber and finaly by all the people looking at it trying to figuire out what was said or trying to be said.. as they were also handed down generations with lots of embellishment. kinda like this one found on the wall of a car's dashbord remember what you see may not be what somebody else sees.and what you hear may not be what is said.