Mesoamerican processed rubber
Caucho vulcanizado natural (látex con ipomoea)
- Date
- c. 1600 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- El Manatí, Veracruz, Mexico
- Credited to
- Olmecs
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A mixture of latex from Castilla elastica with juice from the morning glory vine (Ipomoea alba), which cross-links the polymers and produces an elastic, durable rubber for balls, soles and bindings. The first polymer processed by human beings, 3,500 years before Goodyear.
The balls from El Manatí date to c. 1600 BCE, earlier than the Iron Age, but are included here as part of the Olmec-Maya cultural arc of this era.
What it led to
- The Mesoamerican ballgame as a ritual and political institution
- The name of the Olmecs ('people of the rubber country') and the trade in latex
- Rubber sandals, axe bands and figurines
- Empirical materials chemistry in the New World
Built on
- Latex gathering
- Tropical botanical knowledge
Made possible
- Mesoamerican ballcourtc. 1650 BCE
- Rubber ball
- Waterproofing