It is one of the most pivotal inventions in human history - the wheel.New research suggests that the wheel was first created by prehistoric miners in the Carpathian Mountains to transport copper. Tristan Hughes speaks to the team behind this fascinating theory; archaeologist Dr Richard Bulliet, and computational engineer Dr Kai James. They take a fascinating journey through ancient innovations and cutting-edge science to reveal when the wheel was first created and by who - questions that have fascinated historians for decades, if not centuries.Presented by Tristan Hughes. The producer and audio editor is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.All music from Epidemic SoundsSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of the wheel in human history?
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Hallo ihr Mäuse, wir sind Janni und Alina vom Podcast Wine Wednesday.
Und wir spielen am 12.6. im Kino am Olympiasee. Sagt man am Olympiasee?
Oder im Olympiasee? Nee, paddeln wir da drin rum oder was?
Hahaha.
Und wir spielen am 12.06. im Kino am Olympiasee in Zusammenarbeit mit unserem Partner Backmarket eine Live-Show, unser allererstes Open Air.
Das Geile ist, wir dürfen auf der Bühne an euch Zuschauer und Zuschauerinnen einen 800-Euro-Voucher für Backmarket verlosen. Es lohnt sich also nicht nur, wegen unseren schönen Gesichtern zu kommen.
Es wird oft als einer dieser pivoten Momente in der Geschichte der Menschheit bezeichnet. Etwas, das von vielen unserer täglichen Leben bis in die heutige Zeit fundamental bleibt. Die Erfindung der Runde. Wann wurde die Runde erst erschaffen? Von wem? Und für welchen Zweck? Dies sind Fragen, die verschiedene Schauspieler seit Jahrzehnten, wenn nicht Jahrhunderten, fasziniert haben.
Opinionen bleiben dividiert darüber, wo die Geburtstätte der Runde sein sollte, wenn es überhaupt eine Geburtstätte gibt.
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Chapter 2: Who first invented the wheel and for what purpose?
Dr. Kai James is a computational engineer who worked on this new research alongside Richard and software engineer Dr. Lee Allacock. Kai wollte sehen, ob seine High-Tech-Computer-Modelle Richards Theorie unterstützen würden, dass die Räder in den Minds von Zentral- und Osten-Europa originierten und wie technologisch dieses frühere Räder-Design entwickelt wurde.
Wie genau können Computern mit dem helfen? Na, du wirst es herausfinden. Kai, es ist ein Vergnügen. Es ist toll, dich heute auf dem Podcast zu haben. Es ist toll, hier zu sein. Danke. Now, we've just heard from Richard about his work and his theory that the wheel originated with these early miners in the Carpathians. I now want to bring in yourself, Kai, and the science behind this new research.
But first off, I've seen the words computational engineering. Forgive my ignorance, but what is computational engineering? So, computational engineering is...
Es ist eigentlich jede Form von Engineering, die Computer und die Kraft von Computern benutzt, um Engineering-Probleme zu lösen. Oft nimmt das die Form von Mathematik-Äquationen. Also typisch die Systeme, die wir organisieren, werden mit Physikmodellen beschrieben. These models could be from dynamics, solid mechanics, aerodynamics.
And so we use computers to solve the very complicated equations that describe the physics of those systems. And computers do it faster and much more efficiently than if we were to do it by hand. Und dann können wir auch Computer involvieren, wenn es um Dinge wie Designs oder Modelle von Ingenieursystemen geht.
Und dann, mehr spätestens, involvieren wir Computer in den kreativen Aspekten des Ingenieurs. So können Computer mit dem echten Design und der Hilfe, uns Design-Decisionen zu machen, mit Tools wie Artificial Intelligence und anderen komputationalen Methoden.
Was hat dich dazu gefühlt, Richard's Research zu entdecken? Von modernen Technologien, neuen Ideen, Methoden und Theorien und so weiter, bis hin zu Engineering von Tausenden von Jahren her und der Erfindung der Welt. Was hat dich dazu gebracht, Richard's Research zu entdecken?
That's a great question. So it is a bit of a departure from my usual engineering problems that I'm investigating. So my work is in the area of engineering design, using computational methods to design engineering systems. And typically those are modern engineering systems like airplanes. But I'm also very interested in the underlying theory and philosophy of design. And so
What I wanted to do was see if we could use our computational engineering techniques to perhaps better understand how early engineers, by early in this case, I'm talking about engineers from 6,000 years ago, how they came up with their designs that were revolutionary to them at the time.
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Chapter 3: What evidence supports the theory of wheel origins in the Carpathians?
Was dieser Prozess entdeckt hat, ist, dass das optimale Design, je nach den bestimmten Objektiven der Benutzern des Rads, im Grunde genommen ein slenderer Achsel mit zwei runden Disks, die wir jetzt als Räder bezeichnen.
Und das optimale Design, nur um uns einen Ausdruck zu geben, was Richard vorhin gesagt hat, es sind keine tiefen Tunnel mit großen Körnern, die man von dem Wilden Westen oder viel später denken kann. Das sind kleine Tunnel, aber auch rechte Tunnel. Das ist, um Dinge in einer rechten Linie herauszufinden. Also sind das die Bedingungen, die du von 6.000 Jahren her denkst. Genau.
The nature of this design really fits well with the idea of the mind environment. Because it was likely straight, we know that early wheel and axle systems, because they were what we call monolithic structures, they're a single part, right? And if you rotate it, everything rotates in unison.
anstatt eines Multibody-Systems, in dem du einen separaten Achsel und zwei Räder verbunden hast, aber sie können sich selbst umdrehen. Und ein monolithisches Räder- und Achselsystem kann Turrenten nicht navigieren. Also ist das Mind-Environment etwas, das zu dieser bestimmten, sehr primitiven Version der Räder-Technologie verleuchtet wäre.
The other thing about that type of wheel is that it also required very flat terrain, level terrain and firm terrain. And that also is where the mine environment, we believe, played a key role in allowing this technology to evolve. Because if it had been used for farming and it was used to carry harvest through a field, that terrain wouldn't have been covered.
It would have been less processed, so it would have likely been less flat, less firm, probably not level. The mind environment is very different. And so that's why we think that this society, which as far as we know, had no written language, very little mathematical or scientific sophistication. But their particular circumstances were such that... They were in the right place at the right time.
Whereas, by contrast, a civilization like the Egyptians, who were highly mathematically advanced, highly scientifically advanced, and had obviously every opportunity and every need, had a dire necessity for the wheel, you know, during the building of the pyramids, they apparently did not know about the wheel at the time that they built the pyramids.
So it goes to show the importance of environment in this technological development process.
I mean, it really does. And it's such an interesting piece of research to do because remember Richard saying how you have those clay figurines, which shows kind of that design, almost the end product from that environment and maybe how they were celebrating that technological invention. So you almost say you have an endpoint to know, okay, that's what they reached. My other question then is,
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Chapter 4: How did prehistoric miners transport copper?
Beide Unternehmen agieren mit Zulassung der BaFin.
Let's explore these various steps, Kai, because I do see in your paper that you have a few visual images of almost the stages to creating this early wheel type. So let's explore this.
So step one is you start with rollers. So these are cylinders that are placed on the ground. In an array, you know, side by side. Made out of wood. Yeah, they could be made out of wood, they could be made out of logs. And so you place your cargo likely in a cart, some kind of container, and you just push it along.
And the rollers are rolling along the ground, but the rollers are also rolling with respect to the bottom of the cart that's resting on them. Wir nennen das bilaterales Rollen, weil das Rollen auf zwei verschiedenen Seiten des Rollers stattfindet. Es gibt das Roller-Grund-Interface und das Roller-Kart-Interface.
Beide sind Rollersurfaces und unter idealen Bedingungen gibt es keine Friction in diesem Prozess. Es sollte also ziemlich einfach sein, wenn man die richtigen Bedingungen hat, wenn der Grund flatt, fest und level ist. Das Problem mit Rollern ist jedoch, Once your cargo passes a roller, it becomes useless. We call them spent rollers. They're rollers that you've already passed.
They're at the back end of your path. Those rollers need to be replenished. You typically would take those rollers and bring them around to the front of your cart. In a mine or in a tunnel, this process becomes very onerous. Even though the terrain in the tunnel was conducive to rollers, the fact that it's an enclosure also means that rollers have this additional requirement that is very costly.
And so we believe what happened was the first innovation was to create a socket in the bottom of your cart or your container that the rollers would rest in. Und so, als du dein Cargo gedreht hast, werden die Roller mit dabei gedreht. Weil die Roller in diesem Schlauch sitzen.
Also musst du die gespennten Roller nicht mehr nach vorne bringen. Es ist fast wie ein Schlauch, aber ein Schlauch, der rotiert, ist es nicht? Genau.
Das ist Schritt 1. Das Problem mit diesem Schritt ist, dass es Friction wiederherstellt. Statt eines bilateralen Rollens zu haben, gibt es jetzt ein Rollen auf einer Oberfläche. Das ist die Roller-Grund-Interface. Wo der Roller den Schlauch am Boden des Kartens trifft, ist das eine fliegende Oberfläche. Du wirst also da eine gewisse Friktion erleben.
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Chapter 5: What is the role of modern technology in understanding ancient innovations?
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Hallo ihr Mäuse, wir sind Janni und Alina vom Podcast Wine Wednesday.
Und wir spielen am 12.6. im Kino am Olympiasee. Sagt man am Olympiasee?
Oder im Olympiasee? Nee, paddeln wir da drin rum oder was?
Oh, das wäre geil, so eine Tretbootshow. Und wir spielen am 12.6. am Kino im Olympiasee. Im Kino am Olympiasee. Und wir spielen am 12.06. im Kino am Olympiasee in Zusammenarbeit mit unserem Partner Backmarket eine Liveshow, unser allererstes Open Air.
Das Geile ist, wir dürfen auf der Bühne an euch Zuschauer und Zuschauerinnen einen 800 Euro Voucher für Backmarket verlosen. Es lohnt sich also nicht nur wegen unseren schönen Gesichtern zu kommen.
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