Message: 23
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000
09:31:56 -0000
From: "John Croft" <jdcroft@...>
Subject: Re:
Wheels.
Apologies for double posting my last post.
Just 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?
Regards
John:
Don't have my files in front of me but I do know that "wagons"
or four wheeled carts show up at Bronocice (Poland). Perhaps Piotr would
like to comment.
The following is excerpted from Piotr's post
concerning the Bronocice Pot:
The radiocarbon date for a cattle bone from
the same level in the same pit as the vessel is 2775+50 BC (calibrated
3635-3370 BC, med. 3404 BC; Kruk & Milisauskas 1999). This date agrees very
well with the expected relative dating based on the absolute chronology of
Bronocice III. The Flintbek ruts are slightly older (radiocarbon 2850-2750 BC,
calibrated 3630-3500 BC). Both are from typical mid-4th millennium TRB sites
anyway.
I also came across another listing by Kruk and
Milsauskas, 1987:
J. Kruk - S. D. Milisauskas,
Bronocice. Osiedle obronne ludności kultury lubelsko-wołyńskiej (2800-2700 lat
p.n.e.) (Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk-Łódż 1985), in: SPFFBU E 32, 1987,
160-162
Hope this adds more light,
Gerry Reinhart-Waller