Here is the classic image of a side drawing on the pot:
The repeating key element on this image is believed to be the first wheeled vehicle drawing ever. However, there are number of reasons to seriously doubt it:
1. Why is "the vehicle" depicted vertically?All other ancient drawings are depicted as you see it in real life moving to the left or to the right around a vase or a bowl. Especially strange when it's placed alongside what seems to be a tree growing upwards from the ground.
2. Why is it depicted in "top view"?
Again, if you have a look at any other ancient drawing you will see a cart or vehicle from aside as you see it in everyday life. Why would one depict a cart as you could've seen it from above with wheels sort of flattened out in a strange way?
Here is the reconstruction of this wheeled cart:
..and this only raises more questions:3. Why these "wheels" are not in place?
As you can see there are 11 "wheels" on the main drawing at the beginning of the article. A pair of horizontal lines is believed to represent axles but as you can see only a couple of "wheels" are depicted as if sitting on an axle. Others are rather placed in a way that the upper circles are above the upper horizontal line and the bottom circles are below the bottom line. And since we have three possible "carts" here depicted in the same way when it comes to these elements it doesn't seem as a mistake of the pot painter but rather the right way to draw it.
4. Why "the wheels" are so small?
The reconstruction is pretty creative but with all the proportions more or less correct reconstructed wheels are almost twice bigger than on the drawing. This is understandable and all ancient carts had quite big wheels as it gives you bigger lever and more mobility on the road or rather the absence of it. And if we believe that all the proportions on the drawing are correct then circles representing wheels should have been twice bigger and they are not.
5. The fifth element?
What's in the middle of a vehicle? If you look at the photo of a pot you will see that all five circles are drawn in the same manner and there is no difference between any of them. So is it the fifth wheel then?
There are two explanations of this given: this is a pot for the harvest or a symbolic drawing of the sun.
Well, if it's a pot why is it so small and so indistinguishable? It must be a central element of the cart drawing, apparently the wheels are not as important as the harvest pot but they all seem to be just parts of the picture. Not to mention that the harvest would rather be a haystack or two not something you could fit in a pot and which would take three bulls to pull it if we believe the reconstruction.
If it's a sun why does it miss classic rays of light coming out of it and what does it do in the center of a cart? And since we have at least three carts we also seem to have quite a few suns here which is at least unusual unless we are talking about star sky.
It's really hard to say why scientists officially state that the pot is the first and proven wheeled vehicle drawing of a kind.
Independent analysis:
Let's have a look at the central part of the drawing again
Despite its childish appearance, the drawing is thoughtful and accurate, for example, threes seem to have 9 branches on each side.
First of all, there is a pad-like element marked with red which crowns the "cart" and both sides of the central frameworks. Also, there is a certain cross-like design pattern marked with green. So we have two objects crowned with "pads" having diagonal groups of 5 elements, frames or circles.
Can it be two different representations of the same object or idea?
..to be continued..
All images are taken from:
Muzeum Archeologiczne w Krakowie
