To invent the wheel, did people first have to invent the spindle? Twelve-thousand years ago, people in a coastal village in the Levant used stone weights on their spindles to spin thread faster and more evenly—and, some archeologists are arguing, in the process they pioneered the basic mechanics that eventually made cart wheels possible.

Ars Technica

Key wheel ideas may have come from weaving

The tools used to make threads could have seeded concepts that eventually led to the wheel.