What Counts as a Toy
Children have always played, but identifying their playthings in the archaeological record is harder than it sounds. Wood, cloth, wax and leather rarely survive, and many small clay or bone objects could have served as toys, offerings, charms or tools. Archaeologists therefore rely on a combination of evidence: finds in houses and children’s graves, scenes on vases and tomb walls, and passing comments by ancient writers. The picture that results is partial but vivid, and it adds a child’s-eye view to what we know of Greco-Roman everyday life. It shows that play was recognised as part of growing up in every major ancient society.
Dolls
Dolls are among the best-known ancient toys. In Egypt, simple wooden figures with painted or beaded hair have been found, though some of these were probably meant as magical or votive figures, and scholars debate which were playthings. In Greece, small terracotta figurines with jointed limbs, attached by cords or pins, are often called dolls. Some were buried with girls who died young, and literary sources suggest that girls dedicated their dolls to a goddess, such as Artemis, before marriage as a sign that childhood was ending.
Roman dolls were made of cloth, wax, clay, wood, bone and ivory. Surviving examples include jointed figures carved from bone and ivory, and a few cloth dolls preserved by dry conditions in Egypt under Roman rule. Dolls are often connected with girls, but the evidence is thin on whether boys were discouraged from playing with them. A doll might also have been a model of fashion: some Roman dolls have elaborate hairstyles that mirror the styles of adult women.
Knucklebones and Dice
Knucklebones, called astragaloi in Greek, were made from the ankle bones of sheep or goats and were among the most widespread playthings of the ancient Mediterranean. Their irregular shape means they land on one of four main faces, which made them useful as an early form of dice. They could be thrown as a game of chance or tossed and caught in the manner of jacks. Greek vases and terracotta statuettes show both children and adults playing with them, and there are also stone, glass and bronze copies.
Because knucklebones were used by adults for gambling and for divination, a bone found in a house does not automatically indicate a child. In some graves, however, sets of them accompany young occupants, which suggests that people saw them as appropriate companions.
Hoops, Tops and Balls
A hoop rolled along the ground and guided with a stick was a favourite of Greek boys, and similar play is shown on painted pottery. The bronze or wooden hoop could be driven with a hooked stick, and the game also appears in Roman sources. Spinning tops, made of wood or clay, are known from Egypt and from the Mediterranean world. Balls were made of leather stuffed with feathers, hair or other material, or of rag and string, and ball games were played by both children and adults.
Some Greek vase paintings show children on swings, and the festival of Aiora is associated by some ancient sources with swinging, though the exact origins of the custom are uncertain. Scenes of children pulling small carts, riding on sticks or playing with pets such as dogs, birds and tortoises also appear.
Animals, Carts and Models
Small animals and vehicles are among the most common toys found in the Near East and Mediterranean. Egyptian examples include wooden animals with movable jaws or limbs, and small carved figures of cats and crocodiles. Clay cart models with wheels, along with animal figurines and whistles, have been found at sites of the Harappan civilization in the Indus region, where many scholars interpret them as toys. In Greece and Italy, miniature pots, jugs and household items, as well as tiny chariots, are sometimes identified as toys, although they may also be votive offerings, which makes interpretation uncertain.
Board Games and Pretend Play
Board games were widely played, mostly by adults but also by older children. Egypt had senet, a game of moving pieces across a board of thirty squares, which also took on religious meaning in Egyptian afterlife beliefs. Mesopotamia had the Royal Game of Ur, known from boards found in the royal cemetery at Ur. The Romans enjoyed several games with counters and boards, along with dice. Rules for many of these are partly reconstructed from fragments of ancient descriptions and are not fully certain.
Children also invented games of pretence. The Roman writer Horace mentions children building toy houses, harnessing mice to little carts and playing at riding on a stick. Roman children played with nuts, which could be thrown, stacked or used as counters. A coin-tossing game called “heads or ships” (capita aut navia) is reported by a Roman author, reflecting the designs on the coin. Children also played imitation games of war, law courts and school, which imitated what they saw of adult life.
Play Across Social Classes
Not every child could afford a bone doll or a bronze hoop. Poorer children probably played with whatever came to hand: pebbles, sticks, shells, scraps of cloth, and nuts. Wealthy families could commission small toys of luxury materials, and some are found as grave goods. Evidence for Pompeii daily life, which is unusually well preserved, suggests that children’s play took place in streets, courtyards and gardens as well as inside homes.
What Toys Tell Us
Toys show that ancient societies recognised childhood as a stage with its own pleasures, even if they also expected young people to work and to marry early. They also show how play rehearsed adult roles: girls with dolls and household miniatures, boys with hoops, miniature chariots and mock combat. Yet many practices crossed gender lines, and the evidence should not be pressed too hard. The best-supported conclusion is simple: children in antiquity played with much the same sorts of things children do today, using the materials around them.