Wheel

The wheel probably originated in ancient Sumer (modern Iraq) in the 5th millennium BC, originally in the function of potter’s wheels. The wheel reached India and Pakistan with the Indus Valley Civilization in the 3rd millennium BCE. Near the northern side of the Caucasus several graves were found, in which since 3700 BC people had been buried on wagons or carts (both types). The earliest depiction of what may be a wheeled vehicle (here a wagon—four wheels, two axles), is on the Bronocice pot, a circa 3500 BC clay pot excavated in southern Poland. What is particularly interesting about the wheel, is that wheels only occur in nature in the microscopic form, so man’s use of the wheel could not have been in mimicry of nature. It is worth noting, however, that the rolling motion of the wheel is seen in certain animals that manipulate their bodies into the shape of a ball and roll. The wheel reached Europe and India (the Indus Valley civilization) in the 4th millennium BC. In China, the wheel is certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in ca. 1200 BC.