The wheel was likely invented around 6,000 years ago, but a new analysis of curious rocks from Israel suggests that wheel-like technologies existed even earlier.

These could be the earliest discovered spindle whorls, technology that was then seemingly lost for 4000 years.

Israeli archeologists use models based on their find to spin flax into yarn, indicating these pebbles were used as a version of a spinning wheel.

Researchers have analyzed a collection of donut-shaped, perforated stones from the Nahal-Ein Gev II archaeological site, dating back about 12,000 years. They propose that these stones, likely used as spindle whorls,