of the spokes slightly curved is admirably rendered on an Etruscan silver coin in the British Museum' (C, Fig. 30), the date of which may be about the middle of the fifth century, or earlier. A wheel of this description was found by Gastaldi' in the turbary of Mercurago, near Arona in North Italy; it is a wheel of elegant form, in which there is not the slightest trace of any metal." The figure given by Gastaldi (on page 112 of his book) proves that these wheels could be made most skilfully in the Bronze Age.

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The four-spoked wheel is characteristic of Greek vehicles, and may be seen on innumerable coins and vases. It was in use in the Mykenæan Period. A war-chariot of the heroic

Mykenæan War Chariot of the Heroic Age on the François Vase; after Duruy. age is painted upon the François vase (Fig. 29)' with this kind of wheel; in order to give greater support to the felloe, the spokes either splay out or are clamped by triangular

1 B. V. Head, A Guide to the Principal Gold and Silver Coins of the Ancients, from circ. B. C. 700 to A.D. I, British Museum, 3rd ed., 1889, pl. xv., fig. 1. 2 B. Gastaldi, Lake Habitations and Pre-historic Remains in the Turbaries and Marl-Beds of Northern and Central Italy, London, 1865.

3 From Duruy, loc. cit., p. 155, after Monum. dell' Instit. archeol. IV. tav. liv., lv.; and W. Helbig, Das homerische Epos aus den Denkm. erläut., fig. 18, p.

ΙΟΙ.

blocks. An interesting feature in this wheel is the indication of lashing at the junction of the spokes with the hub; it looks as if these were fastened together by means of leather thongs. It is impossible to say whether in this instance actual lashing is intended, or whether the wheels were decorated with a pattern which had its origin in an antecedent method of fastening; examples of the latter will be found in my little book, Evolution in Art. A method of supporting and strengthening the rim, analogous to the last device, is found on an Euboian coin of the early part of the sixth century B.C., ' but in this case (D, Fig. 30) small struts are employed.

1

FIG. 30.

A Series of Early Greek Chariot Wheels from Various Sources.

The shape of the spokes of Greek wheels and the method of their insertion into their respective felloes vary considerably; in E, Fig. 30, will be found four variants; of these No. I is from a coin of Tarentum '; No. 2 is from a car of Triptolemus, on a vase, in which again there is a chevron ornament on the spokes at their insertion in the hub which is suggestive of tying.' Nos. 3 and 4 are common forms,

1 Brit. Mus. Guide, pl. 5, fig. 21.

Ibid., pl. 7, fig. 5.

3 Duruy, loc. cit., i., p. 53; see also Harrison and Verrall, loc. cit., p. cix., fig. 22; p. cxxxix., fig. 36.

especially the latter. An odd variant' (F, Fig. 30) may represent a twinned four-spoked wheel; it occurs on a tetradrachm of Syracuse of about 500 B.C.

Mr. Myres informs me that Mykenæan and Dipylon cars regularly have plain four-spoked wheels'; and this is normal till Roman times. Six spokes occur in the seventh to the sixth centuries, however,' and later, as on a coin of Chalkis' of the third to the second century B.C.; but most of the apparently six-spoked wheels are perspective views of fourspoked wheels, in which the axle is shown, and also the projecting hub. Eight spokes occur as early as the seventh century (probably), in an Oriental car on a Cyprian vase,' and in the sixth century at Klazomenæ, on a painted sarcophagus. But they are not common till much later, as, for example, on an Athenian coin' of the third to the second century B.C.

8

After I had written the foregoing I came across a most interesting paper, by Professor de Aranzadi, on "The Groaning and other Waggons of Spain," which supplies very valuable evidence as to the real nature of these early wheels. The built-up solid wheel of ancient Greece (Fig. 30, A) finds its exact counterpart among the Basques of to-day (Fig. 31). The planks of which the wheel is made are kept together by a transverse plano-convex bar, on the inner side, and by two annular iron bands, which are fastened at the periphery, on

1 Brit. Mus. Guide, pl. 9, fig. 34.

E.g., Brunn, Gr. Kunst-geschichte, i., figs. 97, 100.

E.g., on a Melian vase, Conze, Melische Thongefasse, and Brunn, Gr. Kunst-geschichte, i., p. 109.

Brit. Mus. Guide, p. 43, fig. 32.

5 Brunn, Gr. Kunst-geschichte, i., fig. 96.

Ibid., loc. cit., fig. 135.

Brit. Mus. Guide, pl. 65, fig. 14.

Telesforo de Aranzadi, Der ächzende Wagen und Andres aus Spanien," Archiv. für Anthropologie, xxiv., 1896, p. 215.

the inside and outside of the wheel; but a still simpler kind of wheel (Fig. 31, 6) also occurs. The intermediate stage (Fig. 30, C) is still in use in Spain; Aranzadi calls it the Cantabrian-Asturian wheel. In this the felloe is formed of six pieces of wood, two of the primary planks remain, and the cross-bar is now biconvex in section. The two peripheral iron bands are also present. In one form from Cangas de Tin eo, the two planks fill up the angles which the cross-bar makes with the felloe, and the cross-bar forms the only spoke.

H

5

FIG. 31.

Various Spanish Wheels; after Telesforo de Aranzadi.

1. The outer side of a Basque wheel. 2. The inner side of the same wheel. 3. The Cantabrian-Asturian wheel. 4. Portuguese wheel. 5. Portuguese cart. 6. Wheel from Larrasoana.

In Portugal, wheels are made out of a single piece of wood (Fig. 31, 4), in which two elliptical holes are cut; the wheel is strengthened by bands of iron. An analogous wheel, built up of three boards, occurs in Galicia. The latter type is found in the ox-carts of the Canary Islands and among the Zuñi Indians of New Mexico, to which places it was

brought by the Spaniards. I have been informed that in Mexico, where this kind of wheel is also found, it is sometimes made without any metal parts. A perfectly similar wheel is figured by Gastaldi'; it was made of three pieces of walnut wood; these were clamped by two curved pieces of larch wood, which were let into the wheel; the latter had two semi-circular perforations on each side of the axle. The wheel belonged to the Bronze Age of Northern Italy, and was found in a bog at Mercurago, near Arona.

It is tempting to regard such perforated block-wheels as representing the precursors of spoke-wheels. If in a solid wheel, with four perforations, it was found that the holes. could be enlarged without seriously weakening the contrivance, a wheel with four broad spokes would result; and it might be discovered that it was better to make spokes intentionally than to leave them as supports between holes.

I do not, however, think that this was the actual process of evolution. Most probably the wheel was composed originally of a single piece of wood, later it may have been constructed of boards (Fig. 31, 6) which were variously strengthened. Yet later it was discovered that it was not necessary to make the wheel solid, and various expedients, some of which have been noted above, were devised to lighten the wheel and yet retain its strength.

Groaning through Spain, as if still in the pangs of their labour, do we find these various forms of cumbersome wheels, essentially the same as they creaked three millenniums ago in ancient Greece.'

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66

The groaning cart," or, as the Spaniards poetically term it, the singing cart," Carro que canta, may still be heard in the picturesque parts of Cantabrian and Atlantic

1 B. Gastaldi, loc. cit., p. 11I.

? Block-wheels, which may be mere discs of wood, sometimes perforated with holes, occur in China, Korea, and other parts of Asia.