Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (788 page)

Domesticated cereal of the genus Triticum widely used as a crop by early farming communities in the Old World. Two wild forms of wheat are represented in the Near East: wild einkorn (Triticum boeoticum) and wild emmer (Triticum dicoccoides). Goat grass (Aegilops) is also present in the region and it is the hybridization of this with Triticum that accounts for most of the domesticated wheats, especially Triticum monococcum (einkorn), Triticum dicoccum (emmer), Triticum aestivum (bread wheat), Triticum compactum (club wheat), Triticum spelta (spelt wheat), and Triticum durum (macaroni wheat). Emmer, both wild and domesticated, appears on early Neolithic sites in the Near East from about 7000 bc.

 
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Wooden or metal disc attached at its central point to an axle or pivot in such a way that it can rotate freely to allow a vehicle or other mechanical device attached to the axle to move freely. Widely regarded as one of the single most important inventions ever made, the idea of a wheel seems to have cropped up in many cultures from early times. However, its application in pre-industrial societies is mainly confined to agriculturalist and pastoral societies in the Old World. One reason for this is that wheeled vehicles can only be used on relatively flat terrain or along constructed bearing surfaces such as roads and tracks. Another prerequisite is the availability of draught animals to pull wheeled vehicles.The earliest evidence of wheels comes from Uruk, Iraq, where depictions of what appear to be sledges mounted on four wheels appear on pictograms of the early 4th millennium
bc
. From the later 4th millennium
bc
there are a series of depictions of wheeled vehicles on pottery or as ceramic models across a wide swathe from the Near East via central Europe to the Atlantic coastlands: from the TRB culture in southern Poland, the late Copper Age of Hungary, the Kura-Araxes Culture in Transcaucasia, the Pit Grave cultures of southern Russia, and the Corded Ware cultures of northwest Europe. In all cases these wheels appear to be solid wooden discs with a thickened hub. Actual examples of such wheels have been found dating to the mid 3rd millennium
bc
, for example at De Eese, the Netherlands. Later, multi-part discs were made, often with three elements secured together with cross-pieces on either side.Spoked wheels appear from the mid 2nd millennium, first in the Transcaucasus region but soon afterwards within broadly the same areas that already use wheeled vehicles. By the 1st millennium
bc
iron tyres were being fixed to the outside of the rim of spoked wheels, proving to be a far more robust yet lightweight structure. Wheels were not used indigenously in the Americas, nor in Africa south of the Sahara.

 
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Wheeler , Sir Robert Eric Mortimer
(1890–1976)
[Bi].

British archaeologist (Rik to his friends) well known for his excavations at Colchester, St Albans, Maiden Castle, and Stanwick, amongst many other pieces of fieldwork that made major contributions to the development of excavation and recording techniques. Born in Glasgow but brought up in Saltaire, Bradford, from the age of four, he was educated at Bradford Grammar School and University College, London, where he read classics. In 1913 he won the first Franks studentship and a year later married Tessa Verney . Between 1913 and 1915 he worked for the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England before joining the Royal Field Artillery. He was posted to France in 1917 and as Major Wheeler had a week in the thick of Passchendaele before serving in Italy and then Germany. He was awarded the MC and was mentioned in despatches, his military experience bringing out his powers of leadership and dashing style. After the war he was appointed keeper of archaeology in the National Museum of Wales but in 1926 he left Wales to become Director of the London Museum. Together with his wife he threw himself into transforming the collections in Lancaster House and raising money to establish an academy in which to train archaeologists. In 1937 he founded the Institute of Archaeology in London University, now the largest university department of archaeology in Britain, and was its first director. In the period from the early 1920s through to 1939 the Wheelers excavated many important sites including Lydney Roman Temple, Gloucestershire (1928–9), Roman and Belgic Verulamium, Hertfordshire (1930–3), and Maiden Castle, Dorset (1934–7). In this work Wheeler developed and introduced new approaches to stratigraphic excavation, including what later became known as the
WHEELER SYSTEM
. In 1936 a great partnership was broken when Tessa died.Shocked by political events in 1938–9, Wheeler raised an anti-aircraft battery at Enfield which was later expanded into the 42nd Royal Artillery Regiment which joined the Eighth Army in North Africa. Wheeler was at El Alamein and in the long advance to Tunis. He also fought in Italy. In 1943 he accepted an appointment as Director-General of the Indian Archaeological Survey, requiring him to regenerate and structure a substantial organization, providing training and developing new publications for what was a demoralized group of staff when he took over. He was made a CIE in 1947, returning to London in 1948 to a part-time professorship in the University of London and a role as honorary secretary to the British Academy. He was knighted in 1952. Although he retired in 1968, he maintained an interest in all thing archaeological until his death. Wheeler was always interested in popularizing archaeology and, together with Glyn Daniel , was an early proponent of archaeology on television. In 1954 he was voted television personality of the year. Amongst many honorary positions and awards, Wheeler became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1922, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968, a Fellow of the British Academy in 1970, Director of the Society of Antiquaries 1940–4 and 1949–54, President of the Society of Antiquaries 1954–9, Trustee of the British Museum 1963–73, and Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Board 1964–6).
[Abio.: 1955,
Still digging
. London: Michael Joseph . Bio.: J. Hawkes , 1982,
Mortimer Wheeler. Adventurer in archaeology
. London: Weidenfeld]

 
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A method of setting out archaeological excavation trenches in a pattern of regular square or rectangular boxes with baulks between, pioneered by Sir Mortimer Wheeler at sites in India and southern Britain. The boxes provided suitable subdivisions for the organization and control of labour, for the recording of finds, and, most importantly, so that following the excavation of each unit it was possible to record the stratigraphy in the sides of the baulks, and this developed both a vertical sequence for individual parts of the site and a means of correlating layers and deposits across the site in the horizontal plane. At the end of the excavation the baulks were removed to provide a single view of the lower levels of the whole area. Although useful, the small size of the boxes (typically 3m by 3m) and the fixed position of the baulks throughout the sequence are major encumbrances and this system has now largely been replaced by open-area excavation.

 
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