people in asia also discovered it on their own around 3500 bc. the inca and maya had wheels on children's toys around 1500 bc, but they did not use wheels for work. africa south of the sahara desert, europe, and australia did not have the wheel until people there met people from europe. early wheels were solid disks; the spoked wheel was invented around 2000 bc. the earliest documentation of a vehicle with wheels is a painting dated between 33503500 bc.