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R is for Rubber

Aztec ballplayers playing “hip ball” in a typical state of undress, as depicted by Christopher Weiditz (1528) in a book on Mesoamerican customs.

Rubber isn’t an Ancient Invention, is it? Wasn’t rubber invented by Charles Goodrich (or was it Goodyear?) Or the Michelin Man? Historians seem to think so. A 2021 textbook on material culture history starts: “Rubber began its global bouncing career in the late 15th century.” Another says : “Columbus discovered rubber!” (Columbus discovered a prison cell is what Columbus discovered. ) Or: “Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber!” (Goodyear.com seems to think so.)

Some encyclopedias rightly credit the Mesoamerican cultures with discovering the properties of rubber, though usually they get two sentences, while Anglo-Europeans like Joseph Priestley, Charles Condamine, and Goodyear get several paragraphs. Let’s be clear. The Olmecs , Mayans, and Aztecs, starting as far back as 1600 BCE, cultivated and used rubber. They understand how to use it, what to use it for, and how to improve it. They were proficient with polymer chemistry–vulcanization–to extend its functionality They also invented sports in ways that would seem eerily familiar to us.

Given that we use rubber every darned day, I thought the Mesoamericans deserved a little more credit than always being the fifth oh, and... culture that I include. I thought they deserved their own post.

This post, therefore, deserves its own three questions:

  1. What are the origins of Rubber?
  2. How did the ancient civilizations with access to Rubber use it?
  3. How are these early practices echoed in modern-day Rubber use?
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Q is for Queen

Depiction of Queen Puabi in a 1900 textbook on the British excavations in Mesopotamia. Puabi was mis-translated as Shub-Ad but did earn the title Queen in this graphic.

Notable queens are rare in ancient history. Kings, emperors, and pharaohs fill the pages of history with battle deeds, law-making, and public works. Queens get barely a mention. Yet every Sargon and Ramses had a goal to produce offspring. Male leaders all married, multiple times, to create alliances with surrounding territories. There were plenty of queens, even if we don’t know much about them. I found five worthy of discussion.

Queens presuppose the existing of kings. Kings led successful armies, trade delegations, and public works projects. Queens were usually only the mother of the heir, although a smart king would rely on his queen for much more–to act in his absence, to guide children to become future leaders, and to help address needs of the population. Every now and then, she’d put on armor; every now and then, she would rule if the king died and the heir was too young.

Most ancient cultures had multiple gods, and while one was King above others, there was also a Queen. Yahweh originally had a wife–Asherah. Jesus had a mother who was Queen of Heaven.

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P is for Poem

My name is Calypso And I have lived alone
I live on an island And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning And I brought him into me
Now today Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let him go

Calypso by Suzanne Vega, still telling tales of the hero Odysseus (800 BCE) in the 21st century.
The Sumerian love poem, “The Love Song for Shu-shin,” mentioned in L is for Library. Photo by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg).

The ancient poems that we know were written down, which dates them from @2100 BCE onward. Few people actually read them aside from the kings, priests, or scribes, since very few could read. The earliest poems we know were meant to be said aloud, told as stories. Surely, you can picture the poet–man or woman–standing in the firelight, weaving words of magic in front of an audience as it dozes from the wine and the heat of a Mesopotamian summer night. Perhaps the poet’s eyes gaze at something above the listeners’ heads, maybe at the sparks of firelight that dance above the dark and form shapes of heroes and heroines, of lovers and fighters, whose tales sink into the dreams of the drowsy.

Most of the poems written long ago lost the battle of centuries. Much of what we have are cobbled-together bits and pieces from tablets crumbled away or papyrus half-shredded. None of it was originally written in English. Whatever we have is filtered: patched back together, translated, missing bits filled in, with interpretative decisions about lines, rhyme schemes, word choice. We have to accept it as is.

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