Editing Wheel and axle (section)

==History==

The [[Halaf]] culture of 6500–5100 BCE has been 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=New Light on the Most Ancient East|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.185120|author=V. Gordon Childe|year=1928|page=110}}</ref>

One of the first applications of the wheel to appear was the [[potter's wheel]], used by prehistoric cultures to fabricate clay pots. The earliest type, known as "tournettes" or "slow wheels", were known in the [[Middle East]] by the 5th millennium&nbsp;BCE. One of the earliest examples was discovered at Tepe Pardis, [[Iran]], and dated to 5200–4700&nbsp;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. True potter's wheels, which are freely-spinning and have a wheel and axle mechanism, were developed in [[Mesopotamia]] ([[Iraq]]) by 4200–4000&nbsp;BCE.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East|author=D.T. Potts|year=2012|page=285}}</ref> The oldest surviving example, which was found in [[Ur]] (modern day [[Iraq]]), dates to approximately 3100&nbsp;BCE.<ref name=Moorey1994>{{cite book|last=Moorey|first=Peter Roger Stuart|date=1999|orig-year=1994|title=Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Ixuott4doC|location=Winona Lake, IN|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-042-2|page=146}}</ref>

Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared by the late [[4th millennium&nbsp;BCE]]. Depictions of wheeled [[wagon]]s found on [[clay tablet]] [[pictographs]] at the [[Uruk#Eanna District|Eanna district]] of [[Uruk]], in the [[Sumer]]ian civilization of Mesopotamia, are dated between 3700–3500 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Attema |first1=P. A. J. |last2=Los-Weijns |first2=Ma |last3=Pers |first3=N. D. Maring-Van der |title=Bronocice, Flintbek, Uruk, JEbel Aruda and Arslantepe: The Earliest Evidence Of Wheeled Vehicles In Europe And The Near East |journal=Palaeohistoria |date=December 2006 |volume=47/48 |publisher=[[University of Groningen]] |pages=10–28 (11) |isbn=9789077922187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqEqjtKJQ3YC&pg=PA11}}</ref> In the second half of the 4th millennium&nbsp;BCE, evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared near-simultaneously in the [[Northern Caucasus]] ([[Maykop culture]]) and [[Eastern Europe]] ([[Cucuteni–Trypillian culture]]). Depictions of a wheeled vehicle appeared between 3500 and 3350&nbsp;BCE in the [[Bronocice pot|Bronocice clay pot]] excavated in a [[Funnelbeaker culture]] settlement in southern [[Poland]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Anthony, David A. |title=The horse, the wheel, and language: how Bronze Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world |url=https://archive.org/details/horsewheellangua00davi |url-access=limited |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=2007 |page=[https://archive.org/details/horsewheellangua00davi/page/n39 67] |isbn=978-0-691-05887-0 }}</ref> In nearby [[Zwierzyniec (Kraków)|Olszanica]], a 2.2 m wide door was constructed for wagon entry; this barn was 40 m long and had 3 doors.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://structuralarchaeology.blogspot.com/2009/10/35-olszanica-longhouse-6-why-has-it-got.html | title=35. Olszanica Longhouse 6: Why has it got wide doors?| date=2018-10-26}}</ref> Surviving evidence of a wheel–axle combination, from Stare Gmajne near Ljubljana in Slovenia ([[Ljubljana Marshes Wooden Wheel]]), is dated within two [[standard deviations]] to 3340–3030&nbsp;BCE, the axle to 3360–3045&nbsp;BCE.<ref>Velušček, A.; Čufar, K. and Zupančič, M. (2009) "Prazgodovinsko leseno kolo z osjo s kolišča Stare gmajne na Ljubljanskem barju", pp. 197–222 in A. Velušček (ed.). ''Koliščarska naselbina Stare gmajne in njen as. Ljubljansko barje v 2. polovici 4''. tisočletja pr. Kr. Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 16. Ljubljana.</ref> Two types of early Neolithic European wheel and axle are known; a [[Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps|circumalpine]] type of wagon construction (the wheel and axle rotate together, as in Ljubljana Marshes Wheel), and that of the [[Baden culture]] in Hungary (axle does not rotate). They both are dated to c. 3200–3000&nbsp;BCE.<ref>Fowler, Chris; Harding, Jan and Hofmann, Daniela (eds.) (2015). [https://books.google.com/books?id=2PAkBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 ''The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe.''] OUP Oxford. {{ISBN|0-19-166688-2}}. p. 109.</ref> Historians believe that there was a diffusion of the wheeled vehicle from the [[Near East]] to Europe around the mid-4th millennium&nbsp;BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Attema |first1=P. A. J. |last2=Los-Weijns |first2=Ma |last3=Pers |first3=N. D. Maring-Van der |title=Bronocice, Flintbek, Uruk, JEbel Aruda and Arslantepe: The Earliest Evidence Of Wheeled Vehicles In Europe And The Near East |journal=Palaeohistoria |date=December 2006 |volume=47/48 |publisher=[[University of Groningen]] |pages=10–28 (19–20) |isbn=9789077922187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqEqjtKJQ3YC&pg=PA19}}</ref>

An early example of a wooden wheel and its axle was found in 2002 at the Ljubljana Marshes some 20&nbsp;km south of [[Ljubljana]], the capital of Slovenia. According to [[radiocarbon dating]], it is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old. The wheel was made of [[Fraxinus excelsior|ash]] and [[oak]] and had a [[radius]] of 70&nbsp;cm and the axle was 120&nbsp;cm long and made of oak.<ref name="Slovenia">{{cite web |title=World's Oldest Wheel Found in Slovenia |url=http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/media_room/background_information/culture/worlds_oldest_wheel_found_in_slovenia/ |date=March 2003 |publisher=Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia |author=Aleksander Gasser |access-date=19 August 2010}}</ref>

In [[China]], the earliest evidence of spoked wheels comes from [[Qinghai]] in the form of two wheel hubs from a site dated between 2000 and 1500 BCE.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chinese Bronze Age Wheeled Vehicles|url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/abstracts/spp099_wheeled_vehicles.html|access-date=2022-01-28|website=www.sino-platonic.org}}</ref>

In [[Roman Egypt]], [[Hero of Alexandria]] identified the wheel and axle as one of the [[simple machine]]s used to lift weights.<ref name="Usher">{{cite book 
  | last = Usher
  | first = Abbott Payson 
  | title = A History of Mechanical Inventions
  | publisher = Courier Dover Publications
  | year = 1988
  | location = US
  | pages = 98
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xuDDqqa8FlwC&q=wedge+and+screw&pg=PA196
  | isbn = 048625593X}}</ref> This is thought to have been in the form of the [[windlass]] which consists of a crank or [[pulley]] connected to a cylindrical barrel that provides mechanical advantage to wind up a rope and lift a load such as a bucket from the well.<ref>Elroy McKendree Avery, [[iarchive:elementaryphysi01avergoog/page/n470|<!-- pg=459 quote=wheel and axle. --> Elementary Physics]], New York : Sheldon & Company, 1878.</ref>

The wheel and axle was identified as one of six simple machines by Renaissance scientists, drawing from Greek texts on technology.<ref>Wheel and Axle, The World Book Encyclopedia, World Book Inc., 1998, pp. 280–281</ref>