![[0854_Ein_Krug_aus_Bronocice,_3.550_v._Chr..jpg]] *5,500 year old ceramic pot found in [Bronocice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronocice_pot) Poland, showing a drawing of a wheeled cart.* It is difficult to determine where the wheel and wheeled carts were first developed; partly because the new technology was so valuable that it was instantly adopted by everyone who saw it. The earliest carts themselves have not survived, but an image of a cart drawn on a ceramic pot found in Central Europe dates back to about 5,500 years ago. Ancient burial sites called _kurgans_ in Ukraine contain wooden carts with solid wheels that are about 5,300 years old. The significance of these carts is that they would have enabled people to venture out onto the steppe, carrying larger water supplies in ceramic pots or animal skins than they could carry on foot or horseback. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest cart-users were transhumant rather than fully nomadic. They returned regularly to semi-permanent settlements and analysis of isotopes such as oxygen and strontium in their bones suggests that they typically stayed within a hundred miles of "home". But as time passed, these early cart users were able to spread their culture westward into Europe and Eastward into Asia. ---- Next: [[2.10 - Yamnaya]] Back: [[2.8 - Transhumance]]