Why isn the wheel known to ancient America if the Book of Mormon is true?
A good answer to this common question has been given by Mike Ash at http://www.mormonfortress.com/wheel1.html. Please read that article. Also see “The Wheel in Ancient America” by Paul R. Cheesman, available at SHIELDS, and also Wheeled Objects in the New World by the non-LDS writer Diane E. Wirth, published in The Ancient American, Vol. 2, No. 12, Feb/Mar 1996. The Book of Mormon does not say that wheels were had in the Americas, though the word chariot is mentioned. Very little is said about this device, with no indication that it was wheeled. It could have referred to other devices, such as a cloth framework that was dragged, known in Mayan lore, as discussed by Mike Ash. The idea that the wheel was completely unknown in the Americas is also not quite correct. Wheeled toys have been found in Mesoamerica, and an ancient potter’s wheel, long assumed unknown in the America, has been found in Peru. Other tentative examples are offered in the article by Paul Cheesman above. A drawing of
