Children and their toys

[Crispina]

Were ancient Roman children given toys to play with? Have any examples ever been found, such as dolls, games? I don't recall ever reading much about this.

[Melvadius]

THe short answer is yes they did unfortunately they tend not to be mentioned very often or only passingly in most of my reference books even the ones dealing with the Roman families since those I have collected were on the legal status of the familia.

 

From memory a lot of museums I have visited carry a few items of childers toys on display. As you may expect these include dolls toy animals (sometimes dogs, ponies or oxen pulling carts), toy swords (and armour?) and various other items which allowing for differences of materials and being hand made would not look too far out of place in a modern childs toy box.

 

A lot of gaming items have been found, while some would have been used by adults, they could equally well ahve been used by children. Knucklebones and dice were used for gambliing games, balls and other items used for sports and varoious board games have been found the forerunners of backgammon amongst them.

 

I did find one appropriate reference from Roman literature to childrens games in an extract from Seneca, The Constancy of the Wise Man 11.2, 12 in The Roman Household a Sourcebook by Gardner and Wiedeman and subsequently found an on-line version of here. (The quote can be found on the sixth page in the second paragraph):

 

... The same attitude that we have toward young slaves, the wise man has toward all men whose childhood endures even beyond middle age and the period of gray hairs. Or has age brought any profit at all to men of this sort, who have the faults of a childish mind with its defects augmented, who differ from children only in the size and shape of their bodies, but are not less wayward and unsteady, who are undiscriminating in their passion for pleasure, timorous, and peaceable, not from inclination, but from fear? Therefore no one may say that they differ in any way from children. For while children are greedy for knuckle-bones, nuts, and coppers, these are greedy for gold and silver, and cities; while children play among themselves at being magistrates, and in make-believe have their bordered toga, lictors' rods and tribunal, thine play in earnest at the same things in the Campus Martius and the forum and the senate; while children rear their toy houses on the sea-shore with heaps of sand, these, as though engaged in a mighty enterprise, are busied in piling up stones and walls and roofs, and convert what was intended as a protection to the body into a menace. ...

[Crispina]

Thank you.

[Maty]

Take a look at this link -

 

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=399749&partid=1

 

It's generally supposed to be a toy gladiator. Other examples have also been found.

[caldrail]

I would have thought that the reason we don't see much of childrens toys in archaeology is that there were never many of them to begin with. Child labour was a fact of life for the poor and even those from wealthy families were obliged to grow up very quickly.

[Melvadius]

I would have thought that the reason we don't see much of childrens toys in archaeology is that there were never many of them to begin with. Child labour was a fact of life for the poor and even those from wealthy families were obliged to grow up very quickly.

 

 

That may have been one aspect but toys may normally have been made out of perishable materials (mainly wood and cloth dolls from the late 19th/ earlier 20th century are a good example) so will have tended to survive poorly in the archaeological record. In this context catastrophic destruction events like that at Pompeii and Herculaneum while preserving some aspects of daily life will not have made recognisable toys survival any easier.

 

There is also the possibility that some of what have been listed as 'votive' items were originally childhood toys which were either mis-classified or had a later votive function.

[Crispina]

I was thinking as caldrail mentions, that children were considered small adults. But it stands to reason that there would be toy soldiers for the boys to play with - or gladiators. An entire army of toy soldiers and ships maybe. It's curious that statues did not have movable joints? I'm thinking dolls here but then they would have to be of wood and wouldn't have survived.

[caldrail]

However we might like to consider that such toys aren't easily mass produced. The vast ranks of plastixc soldiers we're accustomed to today weren't available back then (obviously) and thus no more than a handful would be typical in my estimation - we certainly have no record of toy makers contracted to recreate the tenth legion in miniature, although in fairness the children of wealthy families were often treated very indulgently (even alowing the amusement of extteme cheekiness from the youngster).

 

It would appear though that in general toys were less important to childhood than our own experience. The descriptions of children (which seem to somewhat in the background in Roman eyes) rests more on play-acting, larking about, or mischief, none of which require toys and instead rely on the child learning how to relate to the adult world around them.

Edited May 29, 2012 by caldrail

[Melvadius]

I can't resist posting this item linking to a short video on the BBC learning zone.

 

Although really aimed at young children there are actually a couple of interesting photographs of actual Roman period toys on the BBCs primary history website here

 

I also found references on several (dare I say 'less' academic sites) to the Romans playing with a range of games which I suspect, even more than Caldrail indicates may have been the 'norm', would have been very unusual indeed including 'kites'. I really would like to know the origin of that particular claim.

[Crispina]

I'm unable to watch the video, it is "unavailable in your area". But the link to the article and photos is very good. I just don't see many sculptures or paintings of children in general, like the pull-along toy. The doll? I wonder where that was found. Imagine its story.

[parthianbow]

An interesting thread!

 

I think that Melvadius' comment:

"That may have been one aspect but toys may normally have been made out of perishable materials (mainly wood and cloth dolls from the late 19th/ earlier 20th century are a good example) so will have tended to survive poorly in the archaeological record."

 

is most relevant.

 

Kids are kids, and they always have been. Yes, they would have had to have grown up far faster, but they still would have played with toys - made of wood etc. I can't prove that of course, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

[caldrail]

Let's not forget that children are not widely known for looking after their toys and thus many simply disintergrated under use or were destroyed as the children came of age.

[Melvadius]

I'm unable to watch the video, it is "unavailable in your area".

 

Its not a very good image since it keeps freezing and jumping on this PC. I had to go with the best image I could capture after several attempts but this may give you some idea of why I found the video funny...

[Crispina]

I'm unable to watch the video, it is "unavailable in your area".

 

Its not a very good image since it keeps freezing and jumping on this PC. I had to go with the best image I could capture after several attempts but this may give you some idea of why I found the video funny...

 

:lol: :lol:

[DecimusCaesar]

I was thinking as caldrail mentions, that children were considered small adults. But it stands to reason that there would be toy soldiers for the boys to play with - or gladiators. An entire army of toy soldiers and ships maybe. It's curious that statues did not have movable joints? I'm thinking dolls here but then they would have to be of wood and wouldn't have survived.

 

I've seen an example of an Ancient Greek doll with movable arms and legs. The doll is made from terra-cotta and has joints made of cord at the shoulders and knees to give it some limited movement. It must have been very fragile to have been made from such substance, so I'm not surprised that some examples have not survived. Even though the doll itself is Greek, it wouldn't suprise me at all if the Roman children had similar toys.

Edited June 5, 2012 by DecimusCaesar