Mayan rubber bands and rubber soled shoes 3000+ years ago. Wow.

It has been known for some time that the Mayans used rubber balls in their games. They ranged in size from a couple inches to a foot.

Now MIT researchers have discovered that the Mayan formula for rubber was used for many different applications. From adhesive to rubber bands to soles of shoes.

Spanish explorers had written about the Mayan rubber shoes, but evidence this was possible is now proven.

A varying mixture of rubber and morning glory extract could be used for many more different purposes than first thought. Adhering a blade to its shaft, and repairing bowls and pottery were some of the other uses for this mixture.

Very cool to think about the Mayans using this technology of rubber in so many different ways. It is something that in modern times we attribute to Charles Goodyear in the mid-1800's.

They definately had us beat to the punch with this invention.

Article



[edit on 26/5/2010 by Chamberf=6]

Linguistic evidence shows a clear indication of the shoes also. The Mayans had a compound word for "rubber sandals".

They were quite the chemists it seems.

[edit on 26/5/2010 by Chamberf=6]

That's a cool find. I really wish I could see what that civilization was like before the Euros got there. I'm sure it was fascinating. Of course, I would want to see it like a rerun, because if I was really there, I'm sure they would cut out my heart for sacrifice.

Great Post.
The meso-american ball game was a deadly sport.
Now, the news that they used rubber in a variety of ways is quite interesting.
S&F for this post.

awesome find!!! i was just watching ancient aliens about the egyptions and how they got granite 600 miles away to their town and i was thinking that our ancestors CAN NOT be as simple as we have read about..... S&F vedy vedy interesting

Is it really that surprising? The rubber tree is native to South America, specifically to the regions that were heavily deforested by the Maya & preceding civilizations. Thus, it stands to reason that given 3000+ years, they would discover the amazing properties of this resource and various ways to exploit it.

Nothing particularly shocking, the same thing would have happened had the rubber tree been native to Europe or the Middle East. It's only surprising due to the prevalent, heavily ingrained, concept that any societies prior to the industrial revolution were savage barbarians.

Invention is cyclical, full of hills and valleys, and not in any way a continuously ascending upward curve. It's simple hubris that leads us to believe otherwise.

reply to post by Chamberf=6


I've been saying this all along and no one believed me. It took someone with a socialist MIT accreditation to say it's so for people to believe it's true. If researchers from MIT said that the Earth is flat again the public would believe it.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by belidged]

That's so cool! Thanks for posting this. Morning glory extract... who knew??

RC

reply to post by belidged


I searched here on ATS and didn't see that this was posted yet. If you have been saying this for so long, it seems you would have made a thread here on ATS.

The fact it was MIT had nothing to do with me posting about this.
The reason I posted was I saw the article and it was a cool story from a reputable source.

Its amazing how some people can take something cool and twist it into a way to slam others. You and D.E.M. could maybe relax a bit and just take something cool just for what it is.



[edit on 26/5/2010 by Chamberf=6]

reply to post by Chamberf=6


Oh for heavens sake, don't lump me in with the obvious trolls. That's just not fair.

Sure, it's nice to have scientists lend accreditation to the story due to a lack of any written Mayan records after the Spanish invasions, but it's really not at all that earth-shattering for the reasons I pointed out.

If an advanced society sits next to a unique resource for any appreciable length of time, it is inevitable that it will find a way to harness the properties of that resource given the appropriate technological base.

Going "Oh wow, this is so awesome, we didn't even think of this till the 1800's so these guys must not have been the savage barbarians we thought they were" is rather telling about the hubris inherent in western civilization, given that the lack of a proper utilization of rubber till a few hundred years ago was due to the primary natural supply being located in South America, as I pointed out.

In other news: The Romans utilized lead pipes for complex private plumbing schemes not seen again till the 18-19th century! Such a shocking and truly stupendous advancement from a culture obviously less advanced than ours! Who expected this of the barbarians?

It's all cyclical. Technology is invented, technology is forgotten, and the guys who come across it the second time always act all shocked that some prior society thought of it first.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by D.E.M.]

Going "Oh wow, this is so awesome, we didn't even think of this till the 1800's so these guys must not have been the savage barbarians we thought they were" is rather telling about the hubris inherent in western civilization, given that the lack of a proper utilization of rubber till a few hundred years ago was due to the primary supply being located in South America, as I pointed out.

reply to post by D.E.M.


So maybe then you could point out where ANYONE said anything about savage barbarians, since you have implied it was said in two posts now.

The only person who has used the term barbarians is you.
What is "rather telling" is that you assume everyone thinks this.

BTW saying "wow, that's cool" doesn't imply that it is shocking at all. Guess what? It means "wow, that's cool".

[edit on 26/5/2010 by Chamberf=6]

Originally posted by Chamberf=6

So maybe then you could point out where ANYONE said anything about savage barbarians, since you have implied it was said in two posts now.

The only person who has used the term barbarians is you.
What is "rather telling" is that you assume everyone thinks this.

Chamber,

Why do you react to D.E.M. in this hostile manner?

Is it because D.E.M. wasn't flabbergasted by the Mayans finding other uses for rubber than the game balls we've all known about for all our lives?

Fact is, neither am I.

I will say, however, that it is pretty cool.

BTW, the Mayans certainly were savages. I mean, they were savage.

Were they barbarians? Depends on your definition, I suppose.

Harte

[edit on 5/27/2010 by Harte]

reply to post by Chamberf=6
The image of "The Aztec god, Xiuhtecuhtli, as one of the nine Lords of the Night, offers up rubber balls in this drawing, " totally deflected me from the content of the article!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8fd82d467325.jpg[/atsimg]

I'm seeing a Mesolithic fast food joint serving fries with jaguar burgers

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by Chamberf=6

So maybe then you could point out where ANYONE said anything about savage barbarians, since you have implied it was said in two posts now.

The only person who has used the term barbarians is you.
What is "rather telling" is that you assume everyone thinks this.

Chamber,

Why do you react to D.E.M. in this hostile manner?

Is it because D.E.M. wasn't flabbergasted by the Mayans finding other uses for rubber than the game balls we've all known about for all our lives?

Fact is, neither am I.

I will say, however, that it is pretty cool.

BTW, the Mayans certainly were savages. I mean, they were savage.

Were they barbarians? Depends on your definition, I suppose.

Harte

[edit on 5/27/2010 by Harte]

I agree with Harte/ D.E.M.
I would have been more suprised if the Mayan's had not found uses for rubber. It's not as though no one every thought to use the rubber from rubber tree's for anything until Europeans landed there.

Well I guess there is no point in posting anything that actually happened or is currently happening.

Next time I start a thread I guess I better have a prediction for the end of the world, or claim to be the messiah.
Anything that cannot be proven, like "ran out of milk, so the timeline must have shifted" should do.
As long as I stick to unprovable threads, hate speech, and fear I suppose I won't get attacked for posting about a something I thought was neat.

sigh

Mods please delete this thread.

[edit on 27/5/2010 by Chamberf=6]

Originally posted by D.E.M.
Is it really that surprising? The rubber tree is native to South America, specifically to the regions that were heavily deforested by the Maya & preceding civilizations. Thus, it stands to reason that given 3000+ years, they would discover the amazing properties of this resource and various ways to exploit it.

Nothing particularly shocking, the same thing would have happened had the rubber tree been native to Europe or the Middle East. It's only surprising due to the prevalent, heavily ingrained, concept that any societies prior to the industrial revolution were savage barbarians.

Invention is cyclical, full of hills and valleys, and not in any way a continuously ascending upward curve. It's simple hubris that leads us to believe otherwise.

I agree with this guy. Sorry.
Not really a big deal.
Just a civilization making use of their surrounding resources.

I just can't seem to be able to jump on board with the rest of the folks that seem to equate everything that South American societies did, with "High Science".

It's just a shame that their practices of sacrifice, cutting off heads, cutting out hearts, bloodletting and the rest of those neat activities were ended when the evil Europeans showed up! hehe

reply to post by Chamberf=6


Come come, I took issue with the way the data was presented, not the fact that the data was presented. It's great that you're spreading interesting factoids, and yes it is interesting, I just hate it when something relatively unsurprising gets blown out of proportion around here.

I still gave it a star and a flag

reply to post by D.E.M.


If saying "wow that's cool" is blowing something out of proportion, then what isn't?
I'll just let the pro CT's do the thread thing. I'll just read.

Originally posted by Chamberf=6
Well I guess there is no point in posting anything that actually happened or is currently happening.

Next time I start a thread I guess I better have a prediction for the end of the world, or claim to be the messiah.
Anything that cannot be proven, like "ran out of milk, so the timeline must have shifted" should do.
As long as I stick to unprovable threads, hate speech, and fear I suppose I won't get attacked for posting about a something I thought was neat.

LOL

I feel you pal.

A couple years ago I posted a current article that came out right after they finally dated the eruption of Thera.

I was very excited about it.

The thread got maybe three replies.

No question, posting unprovable speculation is the norm around here.

Don't take it to heart. I liked your post anyway!

Harte

Well I thought it was cool.

I think the point D.E.M was trying to make is that people have a preconception of what our ancestors where like, living in huts, scraping by a life in the harsh of the wild. When in fact they had it just like us! Clothes, luxuries, hell, the Sumerians where just as 'culturally developed' as us.

In Sumeria, at least, we can say with relative certainty that writing was developed out of economic necessity. Fully 75% of the records that have been preserved are economic or administrative in nature. Deeds, loans, marriages, inventories, wills, census, and tax matters form the bulk of our knowledge of Sumerian life. There is also, however, a substantial body of literature, as well as such mundane conveniences as cookbooks, lists of familiar plants and animals, and most important, dictionaries.

worldhistory1a.homestead.com...

Egyptians had batteries, low potential but still, the ingenuity and understanding is there.

Anyway, great find, I think it shows a lateral thinking that many didn't believe the ancients had.

EMM