சக்கரம் - கிழக்கே கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டதா? மேற்கே கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டதா? (Invention of the Wheel: East or West?)
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N. Ganesan
May 25, 2025, 11:10:43 AMMay 25
to Santhavasantham, Sirpi Balasubramaniam, K Rajan, Asko Parpola
Invention of the Wheel: East or West?
தற்காலத் தொல்லியல் ஆய்வுகள் தரும் செய்திகள். அவற்றால் என்னுள் தோன்றும் அடிப்படையான விஞ்ஞானக் கேள்விகள் எழுப்பியுள்ளேன்.
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I am looking at the ancient and beautiful clay toys of India that are drawn by zebu oxen. They are about 2000+ years old. About 35 centuries ago, we have ceremonial bull carts at Sanauli and Tilwara recently found by ASI. Decades earlier, Archaeologists published the racing cart from Daimabad. It is noteworthy that all these ox-carts are with solid wheels and this technology is very ancient and seems to be quite an independent development in the Bronze age. Aazhi "wheel", AaNi "lynch pin", Nemi "felly of the wheel", irucu "axle", cakaTu "cart" (< kakaTa/kakkaTa. cf. galgal/gulgul (Sumeria)) are Dravidian words. J. M. Kenoyer in "Wheeled Vehicles of the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan and India", published in 2004, remarks:
"At Harappa we find evidence for the use of terracotta model carts as early as 3500 BC during the Ravi Phase at Harappa [...] No carts or wheels dating to this early time period have been reported from any sites in Afghanistan or Central Asia, or even from sites such as Mehrgarh and Nausharo that are located at the edge of the Indus plain. [...] it is now possible to say that, on the basis of the currently available archaeological evidence, the development of Indus wheeled carts appears to be the result of indigenous processes occurring out in the alluvium and not the result of diffusion from mountainous regions to the west."
A hypothesis shifts the focus to the Carpathian Mountains in Europe for the invention of the Wheel. Early miners, engaged in extracting copper from deep underground, may have developed rolling methods out of necessity rather than invention. Richard Bulliet, Columbia University, puts this idea in his book, The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions, 2016. He argued that copper miners in the Carpathian Mountains, burdened with heavy loads of ore, devised the first practical use of wheel-like technology.
OTOH, like the Western end, in the Eastern end, the Agriculture based vast Indus civilization, independently has developed two-wheel cart technology for the necessity of use in Farming. Wheels are not new to the Early Harappans. They had pottery wheels. Also, the oldest spoked wheel, tiny in size, is cast in bronze "cire-perdue" (lost wax) technology ~6000 years ago. https://nature.com/articles/ncomms13356 . IVC bronzes or 1000+ years old Chola bronze Nataraja employ the same tech. Also, often in the Indus script, the Sun is shown as a circle with six partitions (seasons); e.g., above the Kolli/proto-Durga from Harappa. https://x.com/naa_ganesan/status/1898512919492530594
Given the radiocarbon dates of the Wheel invention (East & West) being so close in the Carpathian Mountains and in the Early Harappan period, there was NOT enough time for the wheel technology of the Carpathian Mountains, much like those in the refuse-carts used today, to come to the IVC and getting adapted for widespread use in Agriculture. Carpathian mountain carts were pushed by humans, while the Early Harappan carts were used with oxen. And, the employment of Wheels in carts are in totally different context. It is likely the Wheel invention happened in the East and West simultaneously, as there was not enough time to radiate from Europe to India 5500+ years ago. Indus archaeologists have to take a closer look at the claims on the date of invention of the Wheeled technology in vehicles. Also, the Meluhhans (IVC) might have introduced wheel technology in Sumeria where it was not used widely in everyday farming. Wheeled vehicles were reserved for pomp and pageantry by the Sumerian kings. Folks from Yamna culture, as the aDNA research now shows, reached India only after 2000 BP, and so, the Tripolye wheeled carts are not the reason why Early Harappans invented wheeled ox-carts for their living: Agriculture. Like lost-wax casting, brick architecture and geometric tiles in town planning, Lunar mansions (Astronomy), domestication of bovids and elephants, ... wheeled carts using zebu and mithun cattle may also be a major local invention (& not from Ukraine).
Let me show an example of an ox-cart, definitely from India. It was sold in Italy/UK in 2014 as belonging to the Near Eastern countries (Babylon), and they date it as 3rd millennium BCE ! This Indian clay toy is only about ~ 2200 years old. And, like Sanauli and Tilwara, it uses oxen.
https://pandolfini.it/uk/auction-0032/modellino-di-carroandnbsp-andnbsp-andnbsp-and-3-201406100123100
N. Ganesan
Description is given in Italian. Google translation:
Model of a chariot
Material and technique: pink clay, red cage, moulded
with retouching with a stick
Model of a chariot with a rectangular body decorated on the sides with
concentric floral motifs and on the front with a pair of oxen
Production: Paleo-Babylonian ceramics
State of conservation: missing part of the body and a wheel
Dimensions: 7.5x8.5x9 cm
Dating: 3rd millennium BC
See G. Ligabue and G. Rossi Osmida, Animals and Myth in the Ancient Near East, Padua 2008, p. 236, fig. 1
https://pandolfini.it/uk/auction-0032/modellino-di-carroandnbsp-andnbsp-andnbsp-andn-3-201406100123100
Sanauli and Tilwara funerary vehicles using zebu:
https://x.com/naa_ganesan/status/1925854256898113911
I am looking at the ancient and beautiful clay toys of India that are drawn by zebu oxen. They are about 2000+ years old. About 35 centuries ago, we have ceremonial bull carts at Sanauli and Tilwara recently found by ASI. Decades earlier, Archaeologists published the racing cart from Daimabad. It is noteworthy that all these ox-carts are with solid wheels and this technology is very ancient and seems to be quite an independent development in the Bronze age. Aazhi "wheel", AaNi "lynch pin", Nemi "felly of the wheel", irucu "axle", cakaTu "cart" (< kakaTa/kakkaTa. cf. galgal/gulgul (Sumeria)) are Dravidian words. J. M. Kenoyer in "Wheeled Vehicles of the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan and India", published in 2004, remarks:
"At Harappa we find evidence for the use of terracotta model carts as early as 3500 BC during the Ravi Phase at Harappa [...] No carts or wheels dating to this early time period have been reported from any sites in Afghanistan or Central Asia, or even from sites such as Mehrgarh and Nausharo that are located at the edge of the Indus plain. [...] it is now possible to say that, on the basis of the currently available archaeological evidence, the development of Indus wheeled carts appears to be the result of indigenous processes occurring out in the alluvium and not the result of diffusion from mountainous regions to the west."
A hypothesis shifts the focus to the Carpathian Mountains in Europe for the invention of the Wheel. Early miners, engaged in extracting copper from deep underground, may have developed rolling methods out of necessity rather than invention. Richard Bulliet, Columbia University, puts this idea in his book, The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions, 2016. He argued that copper miners in the Carpathian Mountains, burdened with heavy loads of ore, devised the first practical use of wheel-like technology.
OTOH, like the Western end, in the Eastern end, the Agriculture based vast Indus civilization, independently has developed two-wheel cart technology for the necessity of use in Farming. Wheels are not new to the Early Harappans. They had pottery wheels. Also, the oldest spoked wheel, tiny in size, is cast in bronze "cire-perdue" (lost wax) technology ~6000 years ago. https://nature.com/articles/ncomms13356 . IVC bronzes or 1000+ years old Chola bronze Nataraja employ the same tech. Also, often in the Indus script, the Sun is shown as a circle with six partitions (seasons); e.g., above the Kolli/proto-Durga from Harappa. https://x.com/naa_ganesan/status/1898512919492530594
Given the radiocarbon dates of the Wheel invention (East & West) being so close in the Carpathian Mountains and in the Early Harappan period, there was NOT enough time for the wheel technology of the Carpathian Mountains, much like those in the refuse-carts used today, to come to the IVC and getting adapted for widespread use in Agriculture. Carpathian mountain carts were pushed by humans, while the Early Harappan carts were used with oxen. And, the employment of Wheels in carts are in totally different context. It is likely the Wheel invention happened in the East and West simultaneously, as there was not enough time to radiate from Europe to India 5500+ years ago. Indus archaeologists have to take a closer look at the claims on the date of invention of the Wheeled technology in vehicles. Also, the Meluhhans (IVC) might have introduced wheel technology in Sumeria where it was not used widely in everyday farming. Wheeled vehicles were reserved for pomp and pageantry by the Sumerian kings. Folks from Yamna culture, as the aDNA research now shows, reached India only after 2000 BP, and so, the Tripolye wheeled carts are not the reason why Early Harappans invented wheeled ox-carts for their living: Agriculture. Like lost-wax casting, brick architecture and geometric tiles in town planning, Lunar mansions (Astronomy), domestication of bovids and elephants, ... wheeled carts using zebu and mithun cattle may also be a major local invention (& not from Ukraine).
Let me show an example of an ox-cart, definitely from India. It was sold in Italy/UK in 2014 as belonging to the Near Eastern countries (Babylon), and they date it as 3rd millennium BCE ! This Indian clay toy is only about ~ 2200 years old. And, like Sanauli and Tilwara, it uses oxen.
https://pandolfini.it/uk/auction-0032/modellino-di-carroandnbsp-andnbsp-andnbsp-and-3-201406100123100
N. Ganesan
Description is given in Italian. Google translation:
Model of a chariot
Material and technique: pink clay, red cage, moulded
with retouching with a stick
Model of a chariot with a rectangular body decorated on the sides with
concentric floral motifs and on the front with a pair of oxen
Production: Paleo-Babylonian ceramics
State of conservation: missing part of the body and a wheel
Dimensions: 7.5x8.5x9 cm
Dating: 3rd millennium BC
See G. Ligabue and G. Rossi Osmida, Animals and Myth in the Ancient Near East, Padua 2008, p. 236, fig. 1
https://pandolfini.it/uk/auction-0032/modellino-di-carroandnbsp-andnbsp-andnbsp-andn-3-201406100123100
Sanauli and Tilwara funerary vehicles using zebu:
https://x.com/naa_ganesan/status/1925854256898113911
N. Ganesan
May 26, 2025, 11:47:29 AMMay 26
to Santhavasantham, K Rajan, Subramanian T S, Subramanian Thinniam S...
Invention of the Wheel: East or West?தற்காலத் தொல்லியல் ஆய்வுகள் தரும் செய்திகள். அவற்றால் என்னுள் தோன்றும் அடிப்படையான விஞ்ஞானக் கேள்விகள் எழுப்பியுள்ளேன்.
Some toys of the zebu carts, 2000+ years old, are shown. These five toys are a continuing tradition of the large funerary bullock carts found in Sunauli and Tilwara Late Harappan/OCP sites. Daimabad racing cart, Tilwara & Sunauli chieftain funeral carts are around 3500 years old. Compare all the cart models.
https://x.com/naa_ganesan/status/1926799402535956956Invention of the wheeled carts drawn by zebu cattle seems to have happened in the IVC 3500 BCE onwards. Quite an independent development compared to wheel invention in Europe. In Sangam texts, all the parts of ox carts have Dravidian roots distinct from the IE words explained in A. Parpola's 2018 paper (late Tripolye culture). The designs of the 4th millennium wheeled vehicles in Europe vs. India are very different also.
https://x.com/naa_ganesan/status/1926628963343884778
J. M. Kenoyer in "Wheeled Vehicles of the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan and India", published in 2004, remarks:
"At Harappa we find evidence for the use of terracotta model carts as early as 3500 BC during the Ravi Phase at Harappa [...] No carts or wheels dating to this early time period have been reported from any sites in Afghanistan or Central Asia, or even from sites such as Mehrgarh and Nausharo that are located at the edge of the Indus plain. [...] it is now possible to say that, on the basis of the currently available archaeological evidence, the development of Indus wheeled carts appears to be the result of indigenous processes occurring out in the alluvium and not the result of diffusion from mountainous regions to the west."
An update with all new publications on 4th millennium wheeled vehicles and their design models, IE and Dravidian words of wheeled vehicles will be fruitful.
N. Ganesan
N. Ganesan
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