It is the purpose of this paper to bring together all of the known examples of those archaeological objects from Mexico which it seems best to refer to as wheeled toys. All but one of these have previously been described and illustrated, but I have thought it worthwhile to repeat to a certain extent in order to put all the evidence into readily available form. I shall also discuss briefly certain of the historical and general anthropological implications of the presence of wheeled toys in ancient America.

In my opinion, the evidence to be presented indicates that the Indians of Mexico had some knowledge of the principle of the wheel in pre-Conquest times. This will come as a surprise to many, because the supposed absence of any knowledge of this principle in the New World has often been stressed in discussions concerning the origin of the American Indian and his cultures. It is held that the absence of the wheel is proof that contact with the developed cultures of the Old Would could not have occurred and that the higher aspects of the New World cultures must have been autochthonous developments. This argument is not necessarily nullified by the finding of wheeled toys in Mexico, but because of them it certainly cannot be used without some reservation. More important, perhaps, and interesting from a number of points of view are the implications in regard to the general problems of inventions or of theories of cultural growth which the presence of wheeled toys in American involves.