Prehistoric innovations: Wheels and wheeled vehicles
Prehistoric innovations: Wheels and wheeled vehicles

Summary/Abstract: Two of the most significant innovations of the fourth millennium BC were the invention of the wheel and of wheeled vehicles, which led to other major innovations during the Late Copper Age. Discussed here are the major milestones and advances in research on wheeled vehicles, problems of dating, and the issues relating to the actual place of the invention of wheeled vehicles as well as the fruitful collaboration between various analytical disciplines and archaeology concerned with the study of wheels and early wheeled vehicles. I have collected the finds relating to wheels and wheeled vehicles. It would appear that the invention of the wheel and of wheeled conveyances occurred in different centres. Even though we are unable to date the creation of the very first vehicle to the year, it seems quite certain that wheeled vehicles appeared more or less simultaneously in several regions in the fourth millennium BC.

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