I believe you are thinking of the pre-Columbian mesoamericans, i.e. the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. This quora discussions seems to offer a pretty good explanation. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Maya-Aztecs-and-Inca-not-invent-the-wheel …. Basic idea is that "wheel" by itself is pretty useless: you need wheels + roads.
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Hero of Alexandria's steam engine was about 17 centuries early but it did make some cool automatons.
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I doubt the wheel was the critical insight, but the bearing, the "wheel within a wheel."
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