Talk:Wheel

You have to write iran beside middle east
You have to write Iran beside middle east 77.137.67.140 (talk) 09:07, 29 March 2023 (UTC)


 * This is not understandable. Please give your full suggestion. Thank You.HJJHolm (talk) 13:54, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

History section has unscientific and dubious information regarding the Origin of the Wheel
Is there a reason why the History section has the sentence claiming that the Sumerian origin is dubious and it's actually an Indian invention? This is unscientific and just plain incorrect. The Indus civilization did not even exist or enter written history during the period that the archeological evidence tells us the Sumerians had invented a wheel. Between 500-1000 years before any Indian civilization existed.

There is NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE to suggest an Indian origin, predating the Mesopotamian origin, at all.

Further, the sources cited there do not in any way support this "Indian origin" story at all. I read through them one by one:
 * 'Economic Growth' by David Weil discusses economic growth. It cites Mesopotamia has a region where the wheel was invented.
 * 'The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions' by Richard W. Bulliet explicitly claims a Mesopotamian origin. Specifically, Sumer. It even later describes some Greek sources which seem to suggest that the wheel was actually passed from the Mesopotamians to the Indians.
 * Man and Wound in the Ancient World by Richard A. Gabriel also cites a Mesopotamian origin. Sumerian specifically. It describes introduction of new technologies including for warfare. India is described as a much younger civilization (thousands of years difference).

Ultimately, the Indian origin narrative is dubious, ahistorical and unscientific. The peer reviewed research and archaeological evidence tells us that the origin is Mesopotamian. It's irrelevant whether the Indian civilization invented it independently (there's very little evidence to support this) as it should be stated that the Mesopotamians invented it first.

I have provided 7 of hundreds of scientific and academic papers on this topic, below:


 * "Wheels and Axles in Ancient Mesopotamia: Part 1" by E. Ascalone and A. Lazaro from the journal Antiquity, Volume 77, Issue 296, December 2003.
 * "The Invention and Diffusion of the Wheel: Evidence and Interpretations" by D. W. Anthony from the journal Archaeology, Volume 55, Number 4, July/August 2002.
 * The Origin and Spread of the Wheel in Prehistoric Eurasia" by D. W. Anthony from the journal Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 26, 1997.
 * "The Earliest Wheels: History, Evolution, Adaptation, and Distribution" by P. R. Biagi from the book The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions, edited by R. Heitzmann and S. Stoddart, Berg Publishers, 2002.
 * "The Wheel and Axle Concept in Ancient Mesopotamia" by I. Finkel from the journal Iraq, Volume 56, 1994.
 * "The Wheel in China" by E. C. Bridgman from the journal Technology and Culture, Volume 1, Number 4, 1960. This article provides an overview of the archaeological evidence for the development of the wheel in China, including the evidence for its introduction from neighboring regions.
 * "New Insights into the Wheel and Axle in the Ancient Near East" by B. Poulsen and E. Rova from the journal Near Eastern Archaeology, Volume 83, Issue 1, March 2020.

This should be changed immediately.

OnceAndDone (talk) 02:24, 11 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Please regard this by far newer and up-to-date source: * The Earliest Wheel Finds, their Archeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus. by Holm, Hans J. J. G HJJHolm. (2019). With six mostly coloured pictures and graphs, and a table of 130 oldest wheel finds with their miniatur pictures. 309 References (of which 28 in Cyrillic). [Series Minor No. 43]. Budapest: ARCHAEOLINGUA ALAPÍTVÁNY. ISBN 978-615-5766-30-5. — Preceding unsigned comment added by HJJHolm (talk • contribs) 14:05, 11 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your reply, Hans J. J. G. Holm. I added your username to your comment (I checked the page edit history) to add context to your post. Given that you did not sign off and given that you are anonymously citing your own literature in this article. Just so there's no confusion as to any potential bias here. What is the claim you are making exactly? Provide excerpts and a scientific dialogue, please. Just to be clear, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that the Mesopotamians obtained the wheel from the Indians, nor that the Indians invented it before them. I cited a 2020 peer-reviewed work (more recent than your book) to demonstrate this. What is claimed in the article is palpably fallacious. Looking forward to hearing from you. - OnceAndDone (talk) 14:45, 11 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I think he was advertising his book.
 * On researchgate there is a map showing the date ranges, types and qualities of cart wheel evidence from said book. They cluster around Europe and the Middle east. Only showing up much later in the Indus region. A useful starting point for debate.
 * Sadly, the information and names behind each find are hidden within his book. Making independent assessment harder.
 * I'd buy it if it were in stock since it interests me.
 * https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-Chronological-geographical-and-typological-distribution-of-wheel-finds-Hans_fig1_338801525 Idolatrous (talk) 22:54, 28 June 2023 (UTC)


 * I agree with OnceAndDone and have edited the article accordingly. Ikuzaf (talk) 10:34, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

False information about disk wheel
The upper photo has misleading text, and should instead read A modern wheel made of a solid piece of wood. The motive is a modern log wagon from ].

The paragraph:

''Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle. Some of the earliest wheels were made from horizontal slices of tree trunks. Because of the uneven structure of wood, a wheel made from a horizontal slice of a tree trunk will tend to be inferior to one made from rounded pieces of longitudinal boards.''

Awaiting a full rewriting of the historical part, should be shortened to:

Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle made from rounded pieces of longitudinal boards.

Havre2020 (talk) 12:48, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Halaf wheels ??
"The Halaf culture of 6500–5100 BCE is sometimes credited with the earliest depiction of a wheeled vehicle, but this is doubtful as there is no evidence of Halafians using either wheeled vehicles or even pottery wheels." - It remains unclear whether G. Childe is cited for the critisized part or the criticism itself.HJJHolm (talk) 13:51, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Technology and Culture
— Assignment last updated by Thecanyon (talk) 05:32, 12 December 2023 (UTC)