Materials · c. 1,600 BCE

Mesoamerican rubber

Latex blended with morning glory juice makes bouncing balls.

Olmec peoples processed latex into rubber by about 1600 BCE, mixing it with morning glory juice to tune elasticity. They were the first to chemically process rubber.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Agriculture 9500 BCE

What it led to 1

Vulcanization 1839