The origin of the wheel: What scientists have discovered

A new simulation study has shown that the first wheel on Earth was invented about 6,000 years ago in the Carpathian Mountains. Scientists have long debated where and when the wheel was invented: there are three main theories. According to one of them, the wheel first appeared in Mesopotamia around 4000 BC, and then spread to Europe. Another theory suggests that the wheel was invented on the Pontic coast of northern Turkey around 3800 BC. A third theory claims that the wheel was invented in the Carpathians between 4000 and 3500 BC and from there spread to different regions.

The latter theory was put forward in 2016 by historian Richard Bullitt. A Columbia University professor writes in his new study that around 4000 BC, it became more difficult for people to mine copper ore. The coppersmiths had to go deep into the mines and take out baskets filled with ore. Bullitt noted that the Late Copper Age wagons found in the Carpathian region have a rectangular shape with trapezoidal sides, just like modern mining trolleys.

Bullitt and his colleagues suggested that it took three innovations for the wheel to appear. Given the need to move a heavy basket or crate, people probably used casters placed along the track and moved the rear casters forward if necessary. Visit . A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article . The rollers with chutes made it possible to lean on them and move back and forth without having to go around the box to replace the rollers.

The second innovation was the wheelset mounted on the axle. The wheels could provide the cart with more ground clearance to drive over rocks and other obstacles in the mine. And the third innovation, in which the wheels move independently of the axle, probably appeared about 500 years after the invention of the wheelset and added maneuverability to the design.

“The environment in which the developers of the first wheels worked had certain unique features that facilitated the transition to roller transportation. In fact, these environmental features — for example, a narrow enclosed path — prompted the inventors of the wheel to create just such a design,” the researchers suggest. In their opinion, the invention of the wheel can be dated to 3900 BC.