Over the last two centuries, many hypotheses have been proposed about the region of origin of the hypothetical (Proto-) Indo-Europeans as speakers of the postulated Indo-European proto-language. Although wheeled transport has always played a central role in this discussion, an exact chronological analysis of attested wheels, their Indo-European terminology, and the dispersal of the latter in time and space has not yet been conducted. This short study aims to fill this gap. The book investigates the oldest wheel finds (before ca. 2000 BCE) and their Indo-European terminology, especially in terms of onomasiological aspects. Recent lexicostatistical and glottochronological approaches to Indo-European phylogeny are compared, possible implications for the IE-Anatolian and Tocharian migrations are discussed, and a hypothesis for the development of the wheel is proposed. The value of this work lies mainly in the collection of wheel-related archaeological and linguistic data and their analyses in a chronological context.
1. Introduction
2. The archaeological attestations—times, types, and topology
3. Wheels, wains, and words
4. Computed Indo-European dispersal
5. Combining archaeology, linguistics, and glottochronology
6. The wheel fi nds and two debated questions
7. Conclusion and outlook
8. References to the main text
9. Finds Table: Representative Eurasian wheel finds in the fifth to third millennia BCE
10. References to the Finds Table
