Sledge
Trineo de patines
- Date
- c. 6500 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Heinola, Päijät-Häme, Finland
- Credited to
- Mesolithic hunter-fishers of the Baltic
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A wooden sledge runner from Heinola and remains from Vis I (Russia), the oldest preserved land vehicles. It reduces friction for hauling loads over snow, ice or mud.
What it led to
- Winter transport of game, fish and firewood in the north
- Hauling of large blocks (megaliths, Mesopotamia) on runners
- The conceptual model for the wheeled cart: the Uruk sledge pictogram predates that of the cart