The earliest evidence of wheeled transport in Europe and the Near East.

Added December 1997. Updated November 19, 2008.

The earliest evidence of wheeled transport in Europe and the Near East.

A wheeled model from the Late Uruk site Jabel Aruda (Syria), 4500-4400 bp (uncalibrated) and wagon pictographs of Uruk IV are the earliest proof of wheeled vehicles in the Near East. A cart-rut below a TRB megalithic tomb at Flintbek (Germany) is indirectly dated 4800-4700 bp. A TRB pot with wagon motifs from Bronocice (Poland) is 4725±50 bp (GrN-19612), although seven C-14 dates (DIC) of the same Bronocice III phase yield 4610-4440 bp. The GrN date and the Flintbek age seem to suggest that wheeled vehicles were invented in Europe together with the ard, ox-team and yoke, not in the Near East. But the data are still scarce and the BR III DIC-dates raise interesting questions. (For complete article see: The Earliest Evidence of Wheeled Vehicles in Europe and the Near East. Antiquity 73, 1999:778-790).

Editor’s note:

The current calibration of the Bronocice III (GrN-19612): 4725±50 bp date with with OxCal v3.10 Bronk Ramsey (2005) and atmospheric data from Reimer et al (2004) yields:

68.2% probability

3630BC (26.5%) 3560BC

3540BC (16.4%) 3490BC

3440BC (25.3%) 3370BC

95.4% probability

3640BC (58.3%) 3490BC

3470BC (37.1%) 3370BC

Dr. Jan Albert Bakker

Vakgroep Europese Archeologie

Amsterdam University

Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130

1018 VZ Amsterdam