Over the last century, the car has become the ultimate freedom machine, but in fact its story begins 9,000 years ago. Archaeologists unearthed an ancient settlement 300 kms north of Siberia and found the remains of dogs. The settlers had evolved these animals from the grey wolf and adapted them to pull their sleds to hunt caribou. But it took another 6,000 years to mobilise the rest of humankind. This wasn't so much down to the invention of the wheel, but the wheel-and-axel.
