why it took humans so long to invent the wheel

Why did it take humans 300,000 years to invent the wheel? The history of the wheel is far stranger than you think, and it has nothing to do with ancient humans being slow. You drag a suitcase on two tiny wheels and never think twice. It's just a circle. So why did early humans, with brains the same size as yours, go almost 300,000 years without inventing the wheel? In this animated history documentary, you'll discover who invented the wheel, when the first wheel appeared, and why the invention of the wheel came so late in human history. You'll learn why the wheel was never too simple. It was too hard, and the real problem was the axle. You'll see why copper tools had to come first, why the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia came before the cart, and why the oldest wooden wheel in the world (found in the Ljubljana Marshes in Slovenia, about 5,100 years old) is still more reliable than your luggage. You'll learn why the ancient Americas used the wheel only for toys, and why civilizations in the Middle East gave up the wheel for the camel. And you'll find out why humans landed on the Moon before anyone put wheels on a suitcase. This video draws on research by Jean-Jacques Hublin (Jebel Irhoud fossils), Sonia Harmand (Lomekwi 3 stone tools), David Anthony (The Horse, the Wheel, and Language) and Richard Bulliet (The Wheel and The Camel and the Wheel). ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Why did it take so long to invent the wheel? 0:35 300,000 years of humans without wheels 1:03 What ancient humans did invent 2:03 Why the wheel was so hard to invent 3:03 The potter's wheel came first 3:26 The oldest wheel in the world 3:58 Who invented the wheel? 4:26 What a wheel really needs 5:12 Why the ancient Americas kept the wheel as a toy 5:35 When humans gave up the wheel for camels 6:11 Your ancestors weren't slow 7:00 The Moon before the rolling suitcase 7:28 The wheel you haven't invented yet If this changed how you see the invention of the wheel, hit like, subscribe for more human history and evolution stories, and tell us in the comments: which "obvious" invention will the future laugh at us for missing?