The Turkish television series Diriliş: Ertuğrul portrays a wagon in the year 1225 near Konya as using cross sections of tree trunks for wheels; smaller sections in the front and larger behind. Does this form of wheel have historical precedence? Would it have been limited to this area, or was it more universal?
I recognize that this is a weird question, it just jumped out at me and I can't seem to find any answers on the web aside from one that was just commenting on their inclusion in the show.
If anyone needs the visual it is at about 12:35 in the first episode, the show is available on Netflix.
Solid wooden wheels were once standard, and have been used into modern times. Notably, the wheel appears to have been invented in the early 4th millennium BC, and the spoked wheel at the end of the 3rd (i.e., c. 2000BC).
However, cross-sections of trunks are very rare. Why? It's a question of weight and strength. A thin cross-section of a trunk splits very easily, because the grain runs through the thickness of the wheel. So, to maintain strength, it needs to be very thick, which makes it very heavy. A much lighter wheel can be made of planks. Given a large enough tree (or a small enough wheel), a single plank can be used, but multiple planks joined together was usual. With planks, the grains runs along the wheel, providing strength in one direction. Reinforcements can be added to strengthen the other direction. The oldest wheel discovered so far, the Ljubljana Marshes wheel is made this way, of two planks joined together, with multiple reinforcements running the other way:
Note that hole for the axle is square - this wheel did not turn on its axle, but the whole thing, the axle and both wheels, turned as one unit. (Modern rail wheelsets are still made as one single unit like this.)
A very similar design survived into the 20th century in Anatolia:
differing from very ancient wheels through having an iron tyre and iron cross-grain reinforcement. Wheelsets like this are not as easy to turn, and are not suitable for urban use, but can work quite well as farm vehicles or cross-country vehicles. The Anatolian examples I've seen are usually 2-wheeled ox carts rather than 4-wheeled wagons:
but 4-wheeled wagons have been made with wheelsets like this.
As for "ever used":
This is a modern wheel (and rotates on the axle, unlike the above examples) - note the modern steel parts. Note also that it is much thicker than the plank wheels above. Possibly, this was intended for use with motorised traction rather than animal traction, where the additional weight would be more acceptable.
References and reading:
The Turkish ox cart photo is from http://www.turkeyswar.com/economy/pre-war-economy/
For more on the invention of the wheel, see https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ayuy1c/is_there_any_way_of_knowing_which_civilisation/