Oh dear

Why is the first wheel always shown as stone? Surely a log would have lent itself to the discovery of rolling much more readily

Its called the stone age, not the log age, duh.
- Not when I'm done with it
- According to Google, what we call The Stone Age also included the use of wood products. They were often used together.
I would guess logs don't lend themselves to the historical/fossil whatever record as well as stone does. The oldest wheels we've found are stone because any potential log ones deteriorated, and this was all before written records.
- That entire idea is so absurd I had to check.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel
  Looks like the first transportation-related evidence of wheel we have was made of clay (probably because it was a toy). The first transportation-related actual wheel that we found was made of wood. The first wheel-shaped object we found wasn't used for transportation and was made of wood.
  Stone is just a really bad material for making wheels. But I wrongly expected to see some metal ones on the list.
- Fantastic example of survivorship bias.
- The logs have since been rotated, got it.
- Imagin if logs were actually perfect material for designing that one shape that produces infinite energy, food, and research.
Do you see any trees in that drawing? It seems cavemen existed exclusively in barren volcanic wastelands.
- Haha yes, cavemen only lived in caves far away from forests of course.
  Or maybe forests are just too complicated to draw for a cartoon.
Wheels were useless anyway until the invention of the axle, around 3500 BCE.
- Mill stones are paleolithic so like 7000 years prior to the wheel and the good ones are just wheels with intentionally angled faces.
- What good's an axle without...the grabby thing that holds the axle or whatever it connects to?
Because the oldest reference disks we have are millstones? Idk. They always look like millstones to me
- Might be more to do with stone lasting far longer than wood when it comes to decay.
When it was on TV, the Flintstones cartoon made it to everyone's mind.
Rolling logs is something even beavers have probably been rediscovering over the eras.
- The Flintstones fascinated me when I was a kid because everything had already been invented but it was just made out of rocks and wood instead of metal and plastic. So for example they had a stone dishwasher appliance powered by a bird or something.
Comedy
Might have been grinding wheels for wheat; don’t have to be replaced as often and if in a stone track don’t have to worry as much about breakage. But that’s just a theory…. A history theory… or at least a history conjecture

"Volcanic eruptions are a scam! Ofk we must build on top of hot smooky mountain!"

"MAKE NEANDERTHAL GREAT AGAIN"

I...I can't tell if this is commentary about now or not. Is that bad?

Neanderthals are representing anti-science right wing government here
- Comparing the US Nazis to Neanderthals is an insult to Neanderthals.
I first read it as neanderthals are less aggressive so they must focus now on weapons. I'm pretty sure the intention is that the guys working on the wheel have to stop because the current leadership are neanderthals.
I think neanderthals were less war-like than humans because humans eradicated all of them, but I'm probably reading too much into it.
- I think neanderthals were less war-like than humans because humans eradicated all
  Akchually, Neanderthals were humans and we don't know why they disappeared. The idea that homo sapiens eradicated them all is probably a wrong one; their decline begun before the arriving of homo sapiens.
- We also might simply have outbred them. Remember that modern humans have what appears to be detectable Neanderthal DNA so interbreeding has apparently occurred; we might simply have diluted them into perceived extinction. Besides, there doesn't seem evidence for large-scale war.
  Of course that's all speculation.
- Huh I never thought about Neanderthals that way, but it makes sense. Crazy that now we refer to them as "less civilized" or more "savage", considering what war is.

It's fine. The EU welcomes scientists from the USA.

"U.S.-based applications to the European Research Council (ERC) surged five-fold in August 2025"

https://www.politico.eu/article/european-research-council-funding-us-researchers-relocation-europe/

It was the other way around. Making up lies and ganging up on others is a very sapiens thing to do.

The current scientific reality is what we know about Neanderthals implies that you probably wouldn't have noticed much of a difference in either direction.
They were fully aware cousins with art, music, and ritual behavior, and they were closely related enough to interbreed.
- Thank you for honoring some of our ancestors

Wheel no good on rough ground. Wheel need road network and specialized labor. Befriend animal. He carry.

Freshly baked meme

Why research the wheel? It is already invented. No need to reinvent it.

What is innovation and improvement anyway?
It isn't like we research things that already exist!
That's not how research works. We're still advancing wheel tech for adaptability and use in different environments and conditions.

The wheel is overrated historically. You need paved roads for a wheel to be useful while a donkey train climbs mountains.

TIL all the wheelbarrows on construction sites are actually completely useless and they should just use donkeys instead
- Today I learned that Jeeps just don't do anything when the pavement ends.
What if instead of making something up and barfing onto my screen you spend 3 seconds of googling and actually learning something? Because one thing you can be certain of that there were not many pawed roads 10k bc
The wheel, first used effectively in ancient Mesopotamia, revolutionized human history by enabling faster transportation for goods and people, transforming warfare with chariots, revolutionizing agriculture and crafts through irrigation and grinding techniques, and forming the foundation for modern machinery, including waterwheels and windmills, which drove industrialization and continues to shape our world today (https://www.citeco.fr/10000-years-history-economics/the-origins/invention-of-the-wheel#%3A%7E%3Atext=The+wheel+was+invented+in%2Cthe+basic+mechanism+in+windmills).&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwir3ODIvYKQAxXp_rsIHQ9mK64QgMkKegQIThAE&usg=AOvVaw0GmNq2t-l7KEwCmTL7tZcb)
- I meant it more as in the context of subsaharan Africa not having the wheel until the 19th century. Wheels for transportation were pretty much useless until they got roads there.
  I see now I should have caveated my post with 5 qualifiers now.
Your mom was in that donkey train
- She was only there because she thought the train would take her to get a donkey punch.
Found the Neanderthal
Camels and rivers were also major modes of transportation.
Pretty good video on that whole context: Why precolonial Africa didn't have the wheel
- Rivers are the GOAT