Re: Wheels.

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
wrote: [cybalist message n. 3897]

>
> The evidence is archaeological. I do suspect the dates given by

the

> Times Atlas are somewhat conjectural. The Bronocice "wagon pot" is
> dated at 3635-3370 cal. BC [med. 3404 BC] (or rather, some animal
> bones found together with it are so dated; Milisauskas & Kruk

1982).

> The dating fits what is known about the absolute chronology of the
> archaeological phases of the Bronocice settlement and is regarded

as

> secure. The chalk wheel model found 1974 at Jebel Aruda (on the
> middle Euphrates) has been radiocarbon-dated several times and the
> calibrated results are in the range 3340-2900~3100 BC (Bakker &

al.

> 1998). The Bronocice vessel is also ca. 200 yrs older than the

famous

> cart pictograms from the late Uruk phase (Piggot 1983), and if

there

> are any earlier dates for Mesopotamia (or the steppes, for that
> matter), I'd appreciate a concrete reference. The very oldest
> tangible evidence for the use of wheeled transport seems to come

from

> Flintbek (near Kiel), where a well-preserved cart track was found
> under a megalithic tomb dated to ca. 3600-3500 BC (Zich 1994).

There

> is other evidence of using carts and wagons in the Funnel Beaker
> culture. Of course it's more than likely that future research will
> yield deeper dates for Mesopotamia, Central Europe, Ukraine or all
> these regions; it's all rather tentative at the moment.

*****GK: As for Ukraine, cf. S.O. Husiev, "Do pytannja pro koleso v
trypils'kij kulturi" ("On the issue of the wheel in the Trypilian
culture"), Arkheologija 1995, n.1, pp. 69-72. Husiev's article
includes the photo of the clay model of a four-wheel wagon from the
Trypilian site of Volodymyrivka on the Middle Boh (Bog).
Volodymyrivka has been assigned to the BII/CI phase of Trypilia, and
radiocarbondated (calibrated) as of ca. 3900 BCE. What is
particularly interesting about Volodymyrivka is that it is a
Trypilian site on the border with Serednyj Stih (Sredny Stog). Apart
from the usual Trypilian painted pottery it has a significant number
of Sredny Stog corded ware fragments. The Volodymyrivka wagon is BTW
very similar to that of the clay model from Tepe Gawra VI, but is
apparently some 1,300 years older. Acc. to Husiev, there is a
similar clay model at the site of Nemyriv (a little north of
Volodymyrivka), which is also Trypilia BII/CI. The border situation
of these two sites leaves open the question of whether the real
wagons were Trypilian, or Trypilian representations of Sredny Stog
wagons.*****