ABSTRACT
While there is enough information about the construction of wheel-hubs, from examples which were cast in bronze or bound in sheet-metal, archaeologists are largely ignorant about the manufacture of the felloe and it has hardly ever been discussed. Many important structural details – wheel form, axle construction, bodywork and traction – have been studied from pictorial representations of vehicles known in Mediterranean or Near Eastern contexts. The origin and development of this characteristic construction cannot be discussed without reference to similar finds in the Transcaucasian kurgan of Lcasen on Lake Sevan, excavated by A. Mnazakanjan during the fifties. Despite the precision of the various portrayals, the technical details of felloe construction naturally remain uncertain. Representations of Elamite wagon wheels alone are enough to disprove this, since they seem to be characterized by a great number of spokes combined with apparently similar felloe construction.
