The guy's name was Dr Dick Parry, and he wrote a book on it Engineering the Pyramids . Four pieces of wood on each side create wheel shapes.
I think they may be way off in their estimation of the origin of the wheel. The reason being that even in the very ancient world, there was a lot of engineering aptitude far beyond what people today imagine.
For example, years ago, scientists at the Smithsonian figured out a simple, low tech way the ancient Egyptians could have built the 138 known pyramids of Egypt, in a fraction of the time, with far less manpower than assumed.
Based on a naturally occurring pyramid-shaped geological formation, that likely gave them the idea. The earliest of these were built around 2630 BC, and there can be seen an engineering evolution from that primitive pyramid, to the great pyramids of Giza, about 2560 BC, just 70 years later, which were much more complex and finished.
The scientists at the Smithsonian figured out that with just 8 pieces of wood, held together with pegs, the giant stones could essentially be turned into cylinders. When combined with the dirt ramp technology they had mastered, as well as boats to take the great stones from the quarry to the construction site, labor was just fractional to what it would have had to have been to muscle around giant, rectangular cubes.
Just keep increasing the ramp, and when the capstone is put on top, take away the dirt leaving the fully formed pyramid.
But according to the article, the wheel and axle was invented just a thousand years earlier than that.
Seems to me that if the idea was used, the major problem of exact placement would reman.
I wonder how the idea works with megatonage stone blocks - mass is mass and the effort needed, while less than hauling, would still be conciderable.
The ramp theory is another weakness since to get to the top, a properly sloped ramp would have to be so long as to exceed the space available on the plateau.
Until someone actually builds a full-sized, exact replica of a late pyramid, I continue to hold that there is no way to prove that the Egyptians were actually building new structures rather than repairing existing ones. Ancient Egyptians propaganda aside, an older non-local civiliztion from the First Time may have built them.
Just speculating.
The guy's name was Dr Dick Parry, and he wrote a book on it Engineering the Pyramids . Four pieces of wood on each side create wheel shapes.