World’s Oldest Toy Car – Could This 7500-Year-Old Discovery Be The Earliest Evidence Of The Wheel?

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Today, parents buy their children electric car toys to play with, but the situation was somewhat different thousands of years ago.

Yet, this ancient discovery reveals our ancestors were aware of the wheel 7500 years ago!

A stone car with two axles and four wheels found during excavations in the Kiziltepe district of the southeastern province of Mardin, Turkey dates back to about 7500 years ago.

The world's earliest toy car (L) and title deed, unearthed at excavation sites in Mardin's Kiziltepe district, are on display at the Mardin Museum. (Photo: Cihan)

Archaeologist Mesut Alp said that the toy car, made out of stone, dates back to the late Stone Age and is thought to be 7,500 years old.

According to the Culture and Tourism Director of Mardin, Davut Beliktay, the car is like a copy of cars today. He also points out that the shape of this ancient toy resembles a tractor.

Findings in the area also included toy dolls and whistles made of stone. Interestingly, the whistles are still in working condition. It is believed they are  5,000 to 6,000 years old.

Is this little ancient toy the earliest evidence of the wheel?

On display was also an ancient stone tablet inscribed with writing.

Following exhaustive historical analysis, the writing on the 5 centimeter stone, which was uncovered at an excavation site at the Girnavas Mound, 4 km from the historic district of Nusaybin -was deemed to be the content of an ancient title deed.

Beliktay said that the writing on the historic tablet had managed to remain intact over the years because of excellent preservation techniques. The script, he explained, had been scraped onto the clayish surface with a nail and then the tablet had been placed in a burner.

Its shape resembles a tractor, archaeologists say.

Archaeologist Alp explained that the title deed is 2,800 years old and pertains to selling a garden.

The content of the deed he added refers to a fruit garden and the fruit trees within, which are to be split between the owner's three sons. The deed refers to "Nabulu" which Alp explained was in fact the old name of the current Nusaybin. Beliktay has confirmed that comprehensive information on the two finds will be provided soon.

Still, the most fascinating item is the ancient car toy. Some have suggested it is not a car but rather a chariot. However, chariots usually have only two wheels and are pulled by an animal.

It would appear that the earliest variant of wagon models is represented by a combination of wheels and the draught animal. Altyn Depe, Turkmenistan - Credit: Hermitage Museum 

Evidence of ancient knowledge of the wheel can be found in other time periods.

Rock engravings, the handful of wagon models, and the wagon depictions incised onto clay vessels are no longer our only proof for the use of wagons. New categories of evidence have enriched the archaeological record.

Left figure: Very little is known about this intriguing model save for the fact that it was found somewhere in Ukraine and that it can probably be dated to the period between 3950 and 3650 BC (CUCUTENI TRYPILLIA, Cat. no. U-102, 263). Right: figure: A two-wheeled cart made around the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC from Pakistan.

Marin Dinu wrote the first comprehensive overview of Copper Age wheel models in his study "Clay Models of Wheels Discovered in Copper Age Cultures of Old Europe Mid-Fifth Millenium B.C." Dinu pointed out that the use of wheeled vehicles could thus be dated much earlier than previously assumed.

Yet, archaeological record provides indisputable evidence that wheels were known across the greater part of Europe and Anatolia from the earlier 4th millennium BC onward.

However, nothing as astonishing as the ancient toy car kept at the Mardin Museum has ever been found.

So the question remains: Is this little ancient toy car perhaps the earliest evidence of the wheel?

Updated on September 15, 2023

Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer

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