Ancient DNA is showing us some amazing things! For instance, a group of nomadic herders from the Asian steppes arrived in Europe about 5,000 years ago and pretty much wiped out the existing population of hunter-gatherers and early farmers. A nearly complete genocide, probably made possible by new technologies including the wheeled cart!
There are linguistic reasons to believe the wheel originated some 5,500 years ago with the Tripolye people of modern-day Ukraine because the words associated with wheels and wagons derive from their language.
(Read Full Article on NY Times “5 Takeaways From the Ancient DNA Research Story”)