Editing Wheel (section)

==History==
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,{{clarify|date=March 2025}} or are dated with too much scatter.

The invention of the solid wooden disk wheel falls into the late [[Neolithic]], and may be seen in conjunction with other technological advances that gave rise to the early [[Bronze Age]]. This implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the [[Neolithic Revolution|invention of agriculture]] and of [[pottery]], during the [[Aceramic Neolithic]].

* 4500–3300&nbsp;BCE ([[Chalcolithic|Copper Age]]): invention of the [[potter's wheel]]; earliest solid wooden wheels (disks with a hole for the axle); earliest wheeled vehicles
* 3300–2200&nbsp;BCE ([[Early Bronze Age]])
* 2200–1550&nbsp;BCE ([[Middle Bronze Age]]): invention of the [[spoke]]d wheel and the [[chariot]]; [[domestication of the horse]]

[[File:Ljubljana Marshes Wheel with axle (oldest wooden wheel yet discovered).jpg|thumb|This [[Ljubljana Marshes Wheel]] with axle is the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered dating to [[Copper Age]] (c.{{nbsp}}3130 BCE)]]

The [[Halaf]] culture of 6500–5100&nbsp;BCE is sometimes credited with the earliest depiction of a wheeled vehicle, but there is no evidence of Halafians using either wheeled vehicles or pottery wheels.<ref>{{cite book |title=New Light on the Most Ancient East |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215014 |author=V. Gordon Childe |year=1928 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215014/page/n129 110]}}</ref> Potter's wheels are thought to have been used in the 4th millennium BCE in the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Roux |first1=Valentine |last2=de Miroschedji |first2=Pierre |date=2009 |title=Revisiting the History of the Potter's Wheel in the Southern Levant |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/007589109X12484491671095 |journal=Levant |language=en |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=155–173 |doi=10.1179/007589109X12484491671095 |issn=0075-8914|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The oldest surviving example of a potter's wheel was thought to be one found in [[Ur]] (modern day [[Iraq]]) dating 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 |access-date=26 October 2017 |archive-date=17 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017215042/https://books.google.com/books/about/Ancient_Mesopotamian_Materials_and_Indus.html?id=P_Ixuott4doC |url-status=live}}</ref> However, a potter's wheel found in [[western Ukraine]], of the [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture]], dates to the middle of the 5th millennium BCE which pre-dates the earliest use of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Haarmann |first=Harald |author-link=Harald Haarmann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FkL_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |title=Advancement in Ancient Civilizations: Life, Culture, Science and Thought |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-4766-4075-4 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=40 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chandler |first=Graham |date=August 2017 |title=Why Reinvent the Wheel? |url=https://www.aramcoworld.com/Articles/July-2017/Why-Reinvent-the-Wheel |journal=AramcoWorld |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=28–33 |issn=1530-5821}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Standage |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Standage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoQWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |title=A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-63557-361-9 |location=New York |pages=2–5 |language=en |oclc=on1184237267}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schier |first1=Wolfram |title=The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe |date=2015 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-954584-1 |editor-last1=Fowler |editor-first1=Chris |pages=113 |chapter=Chapter 5: Central and Eastern Europe |editor-last2=Harding |editor-first2=Jan |editor-last3=Hofmann |editor-first3=Daniela |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2PAkBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA113}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Bulliet |first=Richard W. |author-link=Richard W. Bulliet |url=https://archive.org/details/the-wheel-inventions-and-reinventions-0231173385-9780231173384-9780231540612_compress/page/6 |title=The Wheel: Inventions And Reinventions |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-231-54061-2 |series= |location=New York |pages=6, 51–70 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Holm, Hans J. J 2019">Holm, Hans J. J. G.: The Earliest Wheel Finds, their Archaeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus. Series Minor 43. ARCHAEOLINGUA ALAPÍTVÁNY, Budapest, 2019. {{ISBN|978-615-5766-30-5}}.</ref> Wheels of uncertain dates have been found in the [[Indus Valley civilization]] of the late 4th millennium BCE covering areas of present-day India and [[Pakistan]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization: Being an Official Account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro Carried Out by the Government of India Between the Years 1922 and 1927, Volume 1 |page=554 |author=John Marshall |publisher=Asian Education Services |year=1996 |isbn=9788120611795}}</ref>

The oldest indirect evidence of wheeled movement was found in the form of miniature clay wheels north of the Black Sea before 4000{{nbsp}}BCE. From the middle of the [[4th millennium&nbsp;BCE]] onward, the evidence is condensed throughout [[Europe]] in the form of toy cars, depictions, or ruts, with the oldest find in Northern Germany dating back to around 3400{{nbsp}}BCE.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://techzle.com/ancient-wheel-tracks-in-northern-germany | title=Ancient wheel tracks in Northern Germany | date=15 April 2022 | access-date=19 October 2022 | archive-date=19 October 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019175829/http://techzle.com/ancient-wheel-tracks-in-northern-germany | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.zenger.news/2022/04/29/wheel-i-never-europes-oldest-stone-age-cart-tracks-found/ | title=Wheel I Never: Europes Oldest Stone Age Cart Tracks Found | date=29 April 2022 | access-date=19 October 2022 | archive-date=19 October 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019182832/https://www.zenger.news/2022/04/29/wheel-i-never-europes-oldest-stone-age-cart-tracks-found/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Holm, Hans J. J. G. "The Earliest Wheel Finds, Their Archeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus". ''Archaeolingua Alapítvány'', Budapest, 2019, {{ISBN|978-963-9911-34-5}}</ref> In [[Mesopotamia]], depictions of wheeled [[wagon]]s found on [[clay tablet]] [[pictographs]] at the [[Uruk#Eanna District|Eanna district]] of [[Uruk]], in the [[Sumer]]ian civilization are dated to c.{{nbsp}}3500–3350{{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 (11) |isbn=9789077922187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqEqjtKJQ3YC&pg=PA11 |access-date=1 May 2019 |archive-date=22 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822123805/https://books.google.com/books?id=qqEqjtKJQ3YC&pg=PA11 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the second half of the 4th{{nbsp}}millennium&nbsp;BCE, evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared near-simultaneously in the Northern ([[Maykop culture]]) and South [[Caucasus]] and [[Eastern Europe]] ([[Cucuteni-Trypillian culture]]).

[[File:Ur chariot.jpg|thumb|A depiction of an [[onager]]-drawn cart on the [[Sumer]]ian "War" panel of the [[Standard of Ur]] (c.{{nbsp}}2500&nbsp;BCE)|left]]

Depictions of a wheeled vehicle appeared between 3631 and 3380&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 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=2007 |page=67 |isbn=978-0-691-05887-0}}</ref> In nearby [[Zwierzyniec (Kraków)|Olszanica]], a 2.2{{nbsp}}m wide door was constructed for wagon entry; this barn was 40{{nbsp}}m long with three doors, dated to 5000 BCE, and belonged to the [[Neolithic]] [[Linear Pottery culture]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} 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.{{nbsp}}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.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229070257/https://books.google.com/books?id=2PAkBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |date=29 December 2016 }} OUP Oxford. {{ISBN|0-19-166688-2}}. p. 109.</ref> Some 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=Maring-Van der Pers |first3=N. D. |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 |access-date=1 May 2019 |archive-date=22 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822123802/https://books.google.com/books?id=qqEqjtKJQ3YC&pg=PA19 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:India - Kanchipuram - 023 - chariot unveiled for upcoming festival (2507526057).jpg|thumb|Solid wheels on a heavy [[temple car]], contrasted with the lighter [[wire-spoked wheel]]s of the black [[Roadster (bicycle)|roadster bicycle]] in the foreground]]
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.

The [[spoke]]d wheel was invented more recently and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. The earliest known examples of wooden spoked wheels are in the context of the [[Sintashta culture]], dating to c.{{nbsp}}2000&nbsp;BCE ([[Krivoye Lake]]). Soon after this, horse cultures of the [[Caucasus]] region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war [[chariot]]s for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical [[Sparta]] and [[Athens]]. [[Celt]]ic chariots introduced an [[iron]] rim around the wheel in the 1st{{nbsp}}millennium&nbsp;BCE.

In [[China]], wheel tracks dating to around 2200{{nbsp}}BCE have been found at Pingliangtai, a site of the [[Longshan Culture]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kaogu.cssn.cn/ywb/news/new_discoveries_1/202001/t20200119_5081197.shtml |title=Central China discovers earliest wheel ruts |publisher=Xinhua |access-date=2020-01-20 |archive-date=22 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822123815/http://kaogu.cssn.cn/ywb/news/new_discoveries_1/202001/t20200119_5081197.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> Similar tracks were also found at [[Yanshi]], a city of the [[Erlitou culture]], dating to around 1700 BCE. The earliest evidence of spoked wheels in [[China]] comes from [[Qinghai]], in the form of two wheel hubs from a site dated between 2000 and 1500{{nbsp}}BCE.<ref>Barbieri-Low, Anthony (February 2000) "Wheeled Vehicles in the Chinese Bronze Age (c. 2000–741 B.C.E)", pp. 11-12. ''Sino-Platonic Papers''</ref> Wheeled vehicles were introduced to China from the west.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramsden |first=Shaun |date=2021 |title=Indo-Europeans in the Ancient Yellow River Valley |url=https://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp311_indo_europeans_china_zhou_dynasty.pdf |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |issue=311 |pages=21–23 |issn=2157-9679 |eissn=2157-9687}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rawson |first=Jessica |date=2017 |title=China and the steppe: reception and resistance |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/china-and-the-steppe-reception-and-resistance/C8CFF543119597721F43956F2EDB4A28 |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=91 |issue=356 |pages=375–388 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.276 |issn=0003-598X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Linduff |first1=Katheryn M. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ancient-china-and-its-eurasian-neighbors/B968699731758994BA2704D1864DF5EF |title=Ancient China and its Eurasian Neighbors: Artifacts, Identity and Death in the Frontier, 3000–700 BCE |last2=Sun |first2=Yan |last3=Cao |first3=Wei |last4=Liu |first4=Yuanqing |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-41861-4 |location=Cambridge |pages=54 |doi=10.1017/9781108290555}}</ref>

In Britain, a large wooden wheel, measuring about {{convert|1|m|ft|abbr=on}} in diameter, was uncovered at the [[Must Farm]] site in East Anglia in 2016. The specimen, dating from 1,100 to 800&nbsp;BCE, represents the most complete and earliest of its type found in Britain. The wheel's hub is also present. A horse's spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have been part of a horse-drawn cart. The wheel was found in a settlement built on stilts over wetland, indicating that the settlement had some sort of link to dry land.<ref name = BBCMF2016>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35598578 |title=Bronze Age wheel at 'British Pompeii' Must Farm an 'unprecedented find' |publisher=BBC |access-date=2016-02-18 |archive-date=9 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109203927/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35598578 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Remojadas Wheeled Figurine.jpg|thumb|A figurine featuring the [[New World]]'s independently invented wheel. Among the places where wheeled toys were found, [[Mesoamerica]] is the only one where the wheel was never put to practical use before the 16th century.|left]]
Although large-scale use of wheels did not occur in [[Pre-Columbian era|the Americas prior to European contact]], numerous small wheeled artifacts, identified as children's toys, have been found in Mexican archeological sites, some dating to approximately 1500&nbsp;BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Wheeled Toys in Mexico |jstor=275722 |last=Ekholm |first=Gordon F. |journal=American Antiquity |volume=11 |number=4 |pages=222–28 |date=April 1946 |doi=10.2307/275722|s2cid=163472346 }}</ref> Some argue that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the wheel in the Americas was the absence of domesticated large animals that could be used to pull wheeled carriages.<ref>{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |date=1999 |title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies |url=https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Norton |page=[https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam/page/237 237] |isbn=978-0-393-31755-8 |access-date=9 November 2019 |archive-date=26 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326153817/https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam |url-status=live}}</ref> The closest relative of [[cattle]] present in Americas in pre-Columbian times, the [[American bison]], is difficult to domesticate and was never domesticated by Native Americans; several horse species existed until about 12,000 years ago, but ultimately became extinct.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Ben |title=A brief history of the horse in America |publisher=Canadian Geographic Magazine |date=May 2005 |url=http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Magazine/ma05/indepth/#cnd |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819083344/http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Magazine/ma05/indepth/ |archive-date=19 August 2014}}</ref> The only large animal that was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, the [[llama]], a pack animal, was not physically suited to use as a draft animal to pull wheeled vehicles,<ref>{{cite book |author=Ryder, Thomas |title=The Carriage Journal: Vol 23 No 4 Spring 1986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xyg-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 |year=1986 |publisher=Carriage Assoc. of America |page=209 |access-date=2 June 2018 |archive-date=22 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322054603/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xyg-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 |url-status=live }}</ref> and use of the llama did not spread far beyond the [[Andes]] by the time of the arrival of Europeans.

On the other hand, [[Mesoamerica]]ns never developed the [[wheelbarrow]], the [[potter's wheel]], nor any other practical object with a wheel or wheels.<ref name="encyclopedia.com"/><ref name="smith"/> Although present in a number of toys, very similar to those found throughout the world and still made for children today ("pull toys"),<ref name="encyclopedia.com"/><ref name="smith"/> the wheel was never put into practical use in Mesoamerica before the 16th century.<ref name="encyclopedia.com">{{cite web |last=Chasin Calvo |first=Sherri |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/technology-incas-and-aztecs |title=The Technology of the Incas and Aztecs |publisher=[[Encyclopedia.com]] |access-date=21 August 2021 |archive-date=20 August 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210820230953/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/technology-incas-and-aztecs |url-status=live |quote=There were no wheeled carts, or even wheelbarrows. Although wheeled toys and decorations have been found at Mesoamerican sites, the wheel was never put to practical use.}}</ref><ref name="smith">{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Herman |url=https://ambergriscaye.com/museum/digit4.html |title=Real smart folks, but no wheel |publisher=Dig It |access-date=21 August 2021 |archive-date=20 August 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210820225839/https://ambergriscaye.com/museum/digit4.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Possibly the closest the Mayas came to the utilitarian wheel is the [[spindle whorl]], and some scholars believe that these toys were originally made with spindle whorls and spindle sticks as "wheels" and "axes".<ref name="smith"/>

[[Aboriginal Australians]] traditionally used circular discs rolled along the ground for target practice.<ref>{{Cite web |last=koorihistory.com |date=2019-12-01 |title="Aboriginal people never even invented the wheel." |url=https://koorihistory.com/wheel/ |access-date=2022-08-05 |website=Koori History - Aboriginal History of South Eastern Australia |language=en-AU |archive-date=19 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819074912/https://koorihistory.com/wheel/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Nubia]]ns from after about 400{{nbsp}}BCE used wheels for spinning [[pottery]] and as [[water wheels]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E5D71E3BF934A15751C0A962958260 |title=Crafts – Uncovering Treasures of Ancient Nubia |date=27 February 1994 |newspaper=NYTimes.com |access-date=18 September 2017 |archive-date=22 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822123811/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/27/nyregion/crafts-uncovering-treasures-of-ancient-nubia.html |url-status=live}}</ref> It is thought that Nubian waterwheels may have been ox-driven.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://discovermagazine.com/1994/jun/whatthenubiansat393 |title=What the Nubians Ate |work=Discover Magazine |access-date=5 February 2009 |archive-date=1 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301170920/http://discovermagazine.com/1994/jun/whatthenubiansat393 |url-status=live}}</ref> It is also known that Nubians used horse-drawn chariots imported from [[Egypt]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory05fage |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory05fage/page/278 278] |title=The Cambridge History of Africa |last1=Fage |first1=J. D. |last2=Oliver |first2=Roland Anthony |date=1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-21592-3 |language=en |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=10 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610192051/https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory05fage |url-status=live}}</ref>

Starting from the 18th century in West Africa, wheeled vehicles were mostly used for ceremonial purposes in places like [[Dahomey]].<ref name="Law wheel Africa"/> The wheel was barely used for transportation, with the exception of [[Ethiopia]] and [[Somalia]] in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] well into the 19th century.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Chaves |first1=Isaías |last2=Engerman |first2=Stanley L. |author2-link=Stanley Engerman |last3=Robinson |first3=James A. |year=2012 |title=Reinventing the Wheel: The Economic Benefits of Wheeled Transportation in Early Colonial British West Africa |url=http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jrobinson/files/the_wheel_in_africa_february_2012.pdf |publisher=[[Weatherhead Center for International Affairs]] |access-date=5 January 2014 |mode=cs1 |page=1 |quote=One of the great technological puzzles of Sub-Saharan African economic history is that wheeled transportation was barely used prior to the colonial period. Instead, head porterage was the main method of transportation. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106032919/http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jrobinson/files/the_wheel_in_africa_february_2012.pdf |archive-date=6 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="Law wheel Africa">{{cite journal |last1=Law |first1=Robin C. |year=1980 |title=Wheeled Transportation in Pre-Colonial West Africa |journal=Africa |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=249–62 |doi=10.2307/1159117 |jstor=1159117|s2cid=148903113 }}</ref> 
[[File:TricycleAntique.jpg|thumb|Three spoked wheels on an antique [[tricycle]]]]
The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when [[wire-spoked wheel]]s and [[pneumatic tire]]s were invented.<ref>[http://www.bookrags.com/research/wheel-and-axle-woi/ bookrags.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527182437/http://www.bookrags.com/research/wheel-and-axle-woi/ |date=27 May 2008 }} – Wheel and axle</ref> Pneumatic tires can greatly reduce rolling resistance and improve comfort.  Wire spokes are under tension, not compression, making it possible for the wheel to be both stiff and light. Early radially-spoked wire wheels gave rise to tangentially-spoked wire wheels, which were widely used on cars into the late 20th century. Cast [[alloy wheels]] are now more commonly used; forged alloy wheels are used when weight is critical.

The invention of the wheel has also been important for [[technology]] in general, important applications including the [[water wheel]], the [[cogwheel]] (see also [[antikythera mechanism]]), the [[spinning wheel]], and the [[astrolabe]] or [[torquetum]]. More modern descendants of the wheel include the [[propeller]], the [[jet engine]], the [[flywheel]] ([[gyroscope]]) and the [[turbine]].