Wheeled vehicles (roughly 4,000 BCE)

WHEELED VEHICLES (roughly 4,000 BCE)

We tend to think of wheels as parts of vehicles. But millstones for grinding grain are wheels; so are potter's wheels, steering wheels, and a clock's cogs. No one knows when the wheel in the broadest sense was invented, though some claim it was the Mesopotamians. But evidence of the use of wheeled carts has been found in the Middle East, Europe, India, and China from around 6,000 years ago (more or less). Whether some cultures borrowed from others or all developed them independently is not known. Spoked wheels on chariots came around 2,000 BCE, and we were off to the races--or, actually, the battles, as war chariots were the latest thing. Wheeled toys from a little later have been found in the Americas, but without large beasts to pull them, wheeled vehicles seem not to have appeared there until after Europeans brought the horse.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)