Culture, Commerce and Technology I
Moving away from the ancient civilizations that was flourishing in Sumer and the fertile crescent around c. 1700 BCE, its time to take a brief look at the growing modernity and progressive development of a region so often overlooked in history classes; ancient formative Mesoamerica. Born out of the swelling population of the south-eastern regions of Mexico at the time, civilization on the North American continent (more specifically, the central regions of the Americas) had been growing more and more complex over the years as technological, cultural, and spiritual expansion marked the beginning of 'civilized' American societies. Of course, whilst such progression was marching at a rate similar to (or slower than) its fellow cultures along the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, and Yangtze rivers over half-a-world away, with the greater and greater development that occurred over the years between c. 2500 BCE and c. 1500 BCE, this first era of Mesoamerican history was the first definitive period of time that historians can look back on and point to when they speak of 'Ancient Mexico'.
When Mesoamerican chronologists look back at this obscure period of time (in terms of there being no written language or records yet), the primary civilization that they often refer to is that of the the Metcal people (from both metlatzotzona, or "grinder stone", and calquetzqui, "craftsmen"). Known also as the 'wheel builders', or 'builders of the stone', their distinct culture appeared between the years of c. 2000 BCE and c. 1800 BCE following the decline of pre-Olmec culture in their homelands, many historians believing that the Metcals are direct descendants of these more 'primitive' Olmec peoples. Arising around the foothills of the Papaloapan River and the Tuxtla Mountains, this newer civilization would go on to become one of the most distinctive cultures in the Mesoamericans own 'fertile crescent' at the time (the region stretching across southern Mexico); its notable and highly characteristic stone works (long and slender anthropomorphic figures, believed by some anthropologists to be gods) being immediately recognizable due to the sheer number of specimens found, as well as their shape and size (the largest found being three-and-a-half meters tall).
However, in terms of their historical impact, the greatest legacy the Metcals would leave for their neighboring civilizations was that of their advanced technology for the brief period of time their culture had flourished (c. 1700 BCE to c. 900 BCE), pictograms, large 'stone cities', and a form of early irrigation being among the more well-known inventions that appeared in the Americas as thanks to the Metcals. However, the most important invention (in terms of advancing the Mesoamerican's civilizations) would not be that of more advanced tools or their primitive metallurgy; no, it will be the one invention that will be focused on today; the wheel.
With the height of their civilization (some historians pointing to around c. 1200 BCE) coinciding with a remarkably wet period of modern human history that affected almost all of the civilized world, some historians have concluded that the 'invention' of the wheel in the Americas (an outstanding feat considering many believe that the technology was brought into being 'only one other time' in history, that in pre-Sumerian Mesopotamia) must have some form of connection to the rise of the so-called 'monsoon climate'. Perhaps born out of the need to move resources up and down the steep Tuxtla Mountains at a more effective and rapid speed during the wet season, or maybe to transport goods to other Mesoamerican settlements in the region in far more turbid and muddy conditions, the wheel has ultimately been (as it had been in Mesopotamia) a mystery to exactly why it had been built in the first place.
Indeed, the only 'true' historicity that can be assumed from archaeological finds at the time being that the invention was more 'progressive' rather than 'spontaneous'. The modern wheel wasn't simply invented by the Metcals (or Mesopotamians for that matter) in a vacuum; there was a progression of primitive wooden rollers-with-axles that must have slowly been tinkered with and improved over the period that defined the height of the Metcal civilization before the 'civilized wooden wheel' made its first appearance and proliferation (stone wheels appearing following the collapse of the civilization). Indeed, the sheer fact that the culture even considered using the wheel-and-axle for use on primitive wagons is a ancient testament to the ingenuity of the human species.
The invention of the wheel would ultimately go on to prove so successful in the 'Mesoamerican crescent' that, by the end of the Metcal civilization around c. 900 BCE, Sumerian-like wagons and caravan were beginning to spread throughout the entirety of south-eastern Mexico, all in spite of a domesticated animal that could draw their carts (Mesoamerican wagons were pulled by human hands). The effectiveness of wheel-and-axle equipped carts at moving goods and resources throughout their 'cradle of civilization' has often been pointed to by historians as one of the prime-movers that would support the growing cities and states that were beginning to appear in bulk during the 11th century BCE. Even in spite of the collapse of the Metcal culture at the end of the 10th century BCE (their downfall being attributed to the change of climate (from damp to dry) by a number of archaeologists), the wheel had by then become so entrenched in the culture and civilization that existed in Mesoamerican societies at the time; the proliferation of the wheel (which would ultimately go onto be used in other innovations, such as grinding stones for maize) seeing to a continued existence long after its inventors had disappeared from this world...
...and history would never be the same again.