From: Mark Odegard
Message: 3988
Date: 2000-09-22
From: John CroftJust regarding wheels. Wheel made pottery (Ubaid again) appears before wheel transport. Inventions tend to work together in clusters. The 4 wheeled solid wheeled chariots of Sumer are as early as wheels elsewhere. The Times Archaeological Atlas of the World states that the first ox-drawn wheeled vehicles, with solid wheels made from three piece planks come from Southern Mesolpotamia. It also states that wheeled vehicles in graves appear in the Steppes 3,600 BCE, a little later. What is the evidence for supposing wheels were not a Ubaidian-Sumerian invention?
The GrN dates and the Flintbek age seem to suggest that wheeled vehicles were invented in Europe together with the ard, ox-team and yoke, not in the Near East. But the data are still scarce and the BR III DIC-dates raise interesting questions.