When was the first wheel created?

The word wheel comes from the Latin «rota», which is defined in the dictionary of the Real Academia de la Lengua (RAE) as: «Mechanical piece in the form of a disk that rotates around an axis».

The wheel is probably one of the most important and transcendent inventions in the history of mankind.

Despite the little information available regarding when it was created, a large majority of experts agree that the first wheel was used in Ur, Mesopotamia, around the year 3,500 BC.

The oldest images of wheeled vehicles that have been found, to this day, appear in a ceramic container dated between 3,500 BC. and 3,350 BC. It belongs to the Trichterbecker culture that lived in what is Poland, East Germany and southern Denmark today.

The oldest physical wheel ever found was discovered in February 2003, in swamps 22 km south of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Its dating is established between 3,350 BC. and the 3.100 BC. An axis was found next to it. The wheel has a diameter of 72 cm and was made in ash wood, while the axle in oak.

An interesting fact is that the wheel was initially used in the manufacturing of ceramics, using lathes that were manipulated by the potters, either with their feet or with their hands, for making pots or other objects with mud cooked.

Later it is discovered its use in the means of transport. For its use in the means of transport the interesting thing is not only the invention of the wheel in itself, but the concept of a wheel with an axis.

It is important to note that the wheels must rotate without friction preventing them, the gap in the center of them and the ends of the shaft had to be almost perfectly round and smooth. The axis could not be very thick either, since it generated a lot of friction and not too thin since it could break. And it had to be well adjusted, so that it would not be too loose, so that the wheels would not tilt, nor very fair, since that way they could not roll.

Can you imagine a world without wheels?