The Origin Of The Wheel

Usually the wheel is regarded as the oldest and most important invention of mankind, so that we often compare it with the use of fire. In fact, mankind has a history of taming fire for more than 1.5 million years, and it has only taken a mere 6,000 years to start using wheels.

Before mastering sharp and sturdy tools, it is impossible for humans to have wheeled vehicles. It is difficult to process wood into a suitable cylindrical shape with stone tools, not to mention the complexity of a spoked wheel. Therefore, the appearance of the wheel can only be a thing after the Bronze Age.

The famous American anthropologist Robert Luwei once asserted that all peoples who use wheeled vehicles have directly and indirectly learned from Babylon. The American Indians knew that towing boats on rolling logs, they also used spinning wheels, and they had the game of rolling hoops, but they never thought of the meaning of driving by wheels.

Lu Wei's view on the origin of the wheel is also the view of most archaeologists, but new archaeological discoveries often subvert outdated theories. The ruts under the megalithic tomb of Flintbek in Germany were left between 4800-4700 BC. The car-shaped jar found in Bronocice, Poland, was located before 4725 BC, but the seven carbon-14 dating of the formation tended to the conclusion of 4610-4440 BC. The earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles in the Near East was discovered by American archaeologist Baldia at the late Uruk site in Syria. A model with wheels and a mural of a "truck" were unearthed there. These things were left by the ancestors 6400-6500 years ago.

Therefore, wheeled vehicles may have appeared in Europe and then spread to the Near East or were invented again by the Easterners.