Single seater sports cars of the Neolithic period.

Not many people realize that the car was invented at least 7,500 years ago according to the earliest model version found near Mardin in Turkey and fashioned from stone, not a motor car but still a car.



The design was similar to racing vehicles of the present with larger wheels at the rear, it appears to have been a single seater sports model also, similar ceramic models have turned up from Mesopotamia.



So they were fully aware of the car as an invention but unfortunately had not managed to invent the engine to drive it.

There is some suggestion though at least to me that they may have realized the benefits of pedal power as a means of propulsion in the absence of the engine.

There are examples of tri-wheeled carts found in Vinca culture dating back around 5,500 years that to all intents and purposes appear to be powered by ducks, seemingly not a very practical way of going about things but the association could have been made between paddling ducks feet and pedals and spindles.



The duck then as the totemic symbol of pedal power, instead of a six cylinder engine they had the six paddling feet of three ducks, nature providing as ever.

The Goddess for whom this is the preferred mode of transport had interesting associations with the Swastika, interesting because this motif related to the turning of Ursa Major around Celestial North seen describing the four quarters of the day or year in terms of it's four positions, and thus natural symbolic relationship to any four spoked wheel.

The example seen right however seems to have relied upon horsepower to draw it forward, but does contain the shallow bowl platform which became a general feature of examples from the Bronze age.

Below an example from China which is reliant upon duck power and which the sacred shallow bowl is an important feature of, other examples ofCollectbile Chinese Old Bronze Vehicle Bird Plate seen here.



Probably even during the Vinca period and certainly into the Bronze age in Celtic culture these vehicles were seen as a magical mode of transportation to the other side

The beaten bronze buckets from Unterglauheim in Bavaria and Hajdu-Boszormény in northern Hungary both have repoussé ornament in which these bird motifs are balanced about a sun-disc, while radiating sun-symbols recur on several examples of body armour, and both birds and sun-discs are found on greaves.

The same combination of water-birds and sun-disc or wheel-motif occurs on the beaten bronze amphora from Mariesminde, Fyn, Denmark, one of several exotic items of beaten bronze-work that have been interpreted as the products of long-distance trade or gift-exchange from eastern Central Europe. Bird imagery is widespread throughout the Urnfield and Hallstatt Iron Age

Celtic funerary practise and ritual

It seems the case then that the cultic associations of the bird with the turning of the Heavens in conjunction with the daily and yearly solar cycle is the tradition that lingered but that this had once practical association with how to turn the wheel and drive the cart was long lost, so ducks just became totemic animals in connection to funerary urns placed upon the carts reflecting the cycle of life.

The ritual associations then of the Bronze age seem a long way off from the early inventiveness of the earliest Neolithic period and their models which don't have an apparent religious context until the Vinca period, so perhaps the fun went out of things along the way and people lost interest in single seater sports models.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Terrific thread! Very informative. I always wondered when wheels were invented as a means to transporting a load. but here, it looks like the high tech of those days had a splinter side of art if not artful toys.

a reply to: Kantzveldt
Those first two images made me think of babies prams-bit of a sun shade roof thing going on.
Or maybe they were mini replicas of a type of hand cart-made as toys for kids of the time?

I would love to be able to visit that period in our history-I bet they would have loads of stuff we don't think was invented until much later.

Great info Kantzveldt.

a reply to: Aliensun

Yes i sort of like the idea that the wheel was in fact first seen in connection to the manufacture of (pedal) cars and it took us 8,000 years to realize once again the inventiveness of our early ancestors.


a reply to: Silcone Synapse

The earliest cars seen here were probably given to children as toys, there are other examples of four wheeled animals for them to play with, but what they've copied here in the model version is something for somebody to sit in and drive, it could of course have perambulator application but there seems an absence of handle.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Thank you.
I was afraid that when I clicked on the thread I would see the Flintstone-mobile.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Interesting considering the scientific community says the wheel was invented in about 2k BC.

There is no steering mechanism therefore they are just kids toys.

The chariot was around and was pulled by horses.

If they find a full size one with steering and pedals then all this phoney speculation over kiddie toys that do not have them mechanisms would mean something.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Kantzveldt

Interesting considering the scientific community says the wheel was invented in about 2k BC.

Phfff! Who listens to them?

originally posted by: randyvs

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Kantzveldt

Interesting considering the scientific community says the wheel was invented in about 2k BC.

Phfff! Who listens to them?

Actually it serves as evidence that modern views of our history aren't all that accurate.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Yes, at the very least.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Ah.......Back in the day they had carts right......Is a cart a car......NO.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
Interesting considering the scientific community says the wheel was invented in about 2k BC.

There are plenty of papers that put it much father back than 2,000BCE, specifically in the 4,500-6,500 range and possibly older.

What's with all the reptile huminoids in chariots? Is the goddess with the swastikas a reptilian?

a reply to: Xcathdra

I don't think they do say that, there's plenty of evidence for the wheel in Vinca culture and the example from Turkey is 7,500 years old.

A stone car with two axles and 4 wheels dating from about 7500 years ago was found during excavations in the Kiziltepe district of the southeastern province of Mardin, are now on display at the Mardin Museum, Turkey.

Read more: www.messagetoeagle.com...

The first comprehensive overview of Copper Age wheel models was written by Marin Dinu in his study "Clay Models of Wheels Discovered in Copper Age Cultures of Old Europe Mid-Fifth Millenium B.C." Dinu pointed out that the use of wheeled vehicles could thus be dated much earlier than previously assumed.

However, nothing as astonishing as the ancient toy car kept at the Mardin Museum has ever been found.

So the question remains: Is this little ancient toy car perhaps the earliest evidence of the wheel?

The two models beneath the one from Turkey are supposedly from Mesopotamia, Sumerian, the first inventors perhaps having driven there in their cars...

Worlds oldest toy car


a reply to: jaws1975

Well those wheeled vehicles are Vinca and they provide the best evidence for ancient aliens so yes maybe it was the extra-terrestrials that taught how to make yourself a decent car, something that seems to have been quickly forgotten.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Xcathdra
Interesting considering the scientific community says the wheel was invented in about 2k BC.

There are plenty of papers that put it much father back than 2,000BCE, specifically in the 4,500-6,500 range and possibly older.

I don't know, there's something a little bit dodgy about this object. The exact same story has been re-issued since it was found in 2011, along with the same promise that there would be a follow up detailing it's providence. Everyone is still waiting. No one seems to want to call the museum out on it but nor is anyone willing to cite the find as legitimate. Given the rather sudden appearance of wheeled vehicles at the same time from Russia to Mesopotamia circa 5500 years ago, there is an expectation that finds will support eariler more localised development of wheeled vehicles somewhere and that somewhere is hotly contested, could easily have been Turkey, so I don't know why they would be dragging their heels other than that Mardin is after UNESCO World Heritage status, deservedly so, it's been settled since at least 8000BC. Perhaps they're holding out in the hope that attention will support their case...which leads me to suspect that the dating isn't as cut and dried as they would like us to think.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Wow pretty cool. I never saw this before. I love when I come on here and find a thread and it is yours! They always give me something to look into for an afternoon!

Very cool! Thank you for the share...and the history lesson.

This is a useful little summary of the evolution of the idea of wheeled vehicles as well as the means imagined and invented for propelling them...

explorerplanet.blogg.no...

...nicely illustrated too.

a reply to: Kantzveldt
S&F
I have wondered on occasion how they reduced the friction and wear between the axle and the wheel. I did read they used some type of fat as a grease however, without ball bearings (or some other type of bearing) the fat would not have lasted very long or worked well.

How ever they did it; it must have worked or the Chariots of Egypt or Rome would not have been used.... to much hassle with the wheels falling off all the time. I can only guess a strong spoke wheel (much less weight) was another invention that was problematic.... People were not stupid back then, for sure....

a reply to: Anaana

My post was more of a general one regarding documented cases of ancient wheels and not related to the artifacts in the Original Post.