Why did the Maya use human labor rather than animals or wheeled machines to build monuments?

The Maya relied on human labor to build their monuments because they did not have access to the same technological and biological resources as contemporary civilizations in other parts of the world. Specifically, the Maya did not domesticate animals that could be used for heavy labor or transport, and they did not adapt the wheel for practical, energy-saving applications, despite being aware of it through its use on children's toys.1

Consequently, all construction work was performed by human hand labor, which was organized and directed by an elite group. While the Maya achieved remarkable advancements in fields such as astronomy, mathematics, and writing, their lack of energy-saving machines and draft animals meant that their architectural processes remained fundamentally different from those of ancient and medieval European civilizations.1