spoke

A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface. thumb|right|A spoked wheel on display at the National Museum of Iran, in [[Tehran. The wheel is dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE and was excavated at Choqa Zanbil.]] thumb|right|The remains of a pair of cart wheels with metal axle assembly. thumb|right|An ox-wagon in [[Aliwal North, South Africa. Note the three missing spokes and the metal tire.]] right|thumb|Wooden spoke wheel with metal rim from antique truck on display in Underground Atlanta. right|thumb|Metal tension-spoked wheel from a bicycle. The term originally referred to portions of a log that had been riven (split lengthwise) into four or six sections. The radial members of a wagon wheel were made by carving a spoke (from a log) into their finished shape. A spokeshave is a tool originally developed for this purpose. Eventually, the term spoke was more commonly applied to the finished product of the wheelwright's work than to the materials they used.

==History== The spoked wheel was invented to allow the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. The earliest physical evidence for spoked wheels was found in the Sintashta culture, dating to 2000 BCE. Soon after this, horse cultures of the Caucasus region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war chariots for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula, where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of Minoan dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical Sparta and Athens.