Wheels of uncertain dates have also been found in the Indus Valley Civilization, a 4th millennium BCE civilization covering areas of present-day India and Pakistan. The oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur (modern day Iraq), dates to approximately 3100 BCE. True potter's wheels, which are freely-spinning and have a wheel and axle mechanism, were developed in Mesopotamia ( Iraq) by 4200–4000 BCE. These were made of stone or clay and secured to the ground with a peg in the center, but required significant effort to turn. One of the earliest examples was discovered at Tepe Pardis, Iran, and dated to 5200–4700 BCE. Precursors of wheels, known as "tournettes" or "slow wheels", were known in the Middle East by the 5th millennium BCE. 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. This Ljubljana Marshes Wheel with axle is the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered dating to Copper Age (c.
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Evidence of early usage of wheeled carts have been found across the Middle East, in Europe, Eastern Europe, India and China. However, unlike other breakthrough inventions, the wheel cannot be attributed to a single nor several inventors. Mesopotamian civilization is credited with the invention of the wheel.
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The place and time of the invention of the wheel remains unclear, because the oldest hints do not guarantee the existence of real wheeled transport, or are dated with too much scatter. The English word wheel comes from the Old English word hweol, hweogol, from Proto-Germanic * hwehwlan, *hwegwlan, from Proto-Indo-European * k wek wlo-, an extended form of the root * k wel- "to revolve, move around".Ĭognates within Indo-European include Icelandic hjól "wheel, tyre", Greek κύκλος kúklos, and Sanskrit chakra, the latter two both meaning "circle" or "wheel".