When was the wheel invented?
The wheel was invented around 3500 BC, probably in Mesopotamia or nearby regions. The oldest known wooden wheel, found in Slovenia, is about 5,150 years old.
Interestingly, the first wheels may not have been used for transport. Potter's wheels for shaping clay were in use in Mesopotamia around 4000 to 3500 BC. Wheeled vehicles appeared soon after, around 3500 to 3300 BC, in Mesopotamia, the northern Caucasus and Central Europe, and spread quickly.
The hardest part was not the wheel itself but the axle. The ends of the axle had to fit precisely into holes in the wheels, smooth and round enough to turn freely without too much friction. The Ljubljana Marshes Wheel, found in Slovenia in 2002, was made of ash wood with an oak axle.
From solid to spoked
Early wheels were solid wood. Around 2000 BC, spoked wheels appeared, making chariots much lighter and faster. Some ancient civilizations, like those in the Americas, knew the wheel from toys but did not use it widely for transport, partly because they lacked large draft animals.
Did You Know?
The wheelbarrow was invented in ancient China, probably around the 2nd century AD, long before it appeared in Europe.