In 2008, coal miners were going about their business in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk when they made a shocking discovery of what appeared to be an ancient wheel that was embedded in the sandstone. Though they did try to extract the wheel using tools at their disposal, they found it impossible to extricate it from the rock.
The mysterious artifact still remains trapped beneath the ground to this day.
The incident occurred when the coal miners had excavated a tunnel as this excerpt explains: "Whilst drilling the coal coking stratum named J3 ‘Sukhodolsky’ at a depth of 900 meters (2952.76 feet) from the surface, workers were surprised to find what appears to be the imprint of a wheel above them in the sandstone roof of the tunnel that they had just excavated."
Per reports, the Rostov region where the imprint was found is said to be resting on rock that dates back to the Carboniferous era which is approximately 360 to 300 million years ago. Based on that, it has been suggested that the ancient wheel may have also come from that time period: "This would mean that an actual wheel became stuck millions of years ago and dissolved over time due to a process called diagenesis, where sediments are lithified into sedimentary rocks, as is common with fossil remains."
Even though more than one imprint of a wheel was discovered in the tunnels, only photographic evidence and eyewitness reports exist. This is because the owner of the mine decided not to pursue the matter when informed of the stunning discovery.
According to a letter written by S. Kasatkin, the mine foreman, a detailed examination of the artifact is impossible as the tunnels were flooded and the mine closed.
Proof of wheeled vehicles from ancient times has been discovered in the form of cart ruts in several countries around the world including France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and North America. This in turn gives rise to the idea that technology might have been more advanced than was previously thought.
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