[Yo-Yo]

A spoked wheel requires a lathe to turn the spokes. Definately not easy or cheap in Biblical times.

Spoked wheels are much lighter but I would have to guess that they were extremely expensive.

Solid wheels would have been much cheaper, and capable of carrying heavier loads as well.

[SampleMan]

A spoked wheel requires a lathe to turn the spokes.

Not really, but the alternative is very labor intensive.

[Dean Baker]

Spoked wheels are much lighter but I would have to guess that they were extremely expensive.

Solid wheels would have been much cheaper, and capable of carrying heavier loads as well.

I would assume the same thing, but I would also assume that solid wheels might become more expensive because when they break, the entire wheel is shot...When a spoke breaks, you just replace the spoke.

[chrisser]

A spoked wheel requires a lathe to turn the spokes.

Its a helluva lot easier, but, ever seen one of these...

[bvw]

The joinery on a solid wheel is as problematic I would think — are you sure that a cart used day in and day out in that period would have solid pieces joined together, rather than spokes? A rarely used cart, maybe. But one used everyday for miles and miles in hilly rocky territory — my guess is it would have spokes. Spoked wheels were around maybe 2000 years by then, and a foot paddle operated lathe is no greater complexity than a spinning wheel, which as I understand was a common item. That is to say surely there were many lathes and not costly at all.

[RightWhale]

The spokeshave was intended to make spokes without the lathe.

[jrd]

have you ever seen a spoke shave?...maybe you mean the hub!

[The Pack Knight]

My guess would be that early spoked wheels would have been reserved for "high performance" applications, particularly on chariots.

Chariots were very expensive, and, in their heyday, ownership of one was probably marked one as a member of the military elite, like a knight during the middle ages. Kind of like a tank and a Ferrari all in one, weapon and status symbol.

They were expensive because they had to be lightweight for speed, but also durable enough for both cross-country travel and combat. The spoked wheel was probably a key part of that, and might have been the very innovation that allowed the step peoples who first developed the chariot to raid and conquer so much of the civilized world.

Something similar was happening with metals around the same time. Effective iron smelting techniques had yet to be invented, so bronze was the only durable metal they had to work with. Bronze was certainly superior to stone for both tools and weapons. However, as tin, never terribly common in the first place, began to run out in the West, bronze became too expensive to be used for tools, and thus it was typically reserved for weapons.

[Hegemony Cricket]

"A spoked wheel requires a lathe to turn the spokes."

Nah - a good craftsman can make decent spokes with one of these.

[LexBaird]

A spoked wheel requires a lathe to turn the spokes. Definately not easy or cheap in Biblical times.

Besides the multiple replies about spokeshaves, I'd like to point out that a springpole lathe is simple and cheap. Not to mention that there is no particular reason that a spoke can't just be square.