It seems that play has been around forever and that toys and games are as old as humanity itself. Playing has always been children’s way of learning about life, as well as entertainment, preparation, practice, socialization, teamwork, creativity and pure joy and fun. The world would have certainly looked and felt completely different without games and toys, so let us briefly look into how this important phenomenon developed and changed over ages.
Ancient Civilizations
Indus River Valley
It might surprise you that we don’t know much about some of the oldest cultures, like those located in modern Pakistan, namely Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, the 4000 year old cities of the Indus River Valley, except that they used certain objects in everyday life, including clay toys. That means that toys are much older than writing. It is remarkable that one tenth of all the archaeological findings in the Indus River Valley are play related, like toys and dice.
Ancient Egypt
We know a lot about the Ancient Egyptians’ way of life from their wall paintings, and there are a lot of depictions of play and games. Egyptian boys and girls played in similar ways to modern ones. Boys split up into two competing teams, wrestled and had races, while girls played with balls made of a leather skin filled with chaff and clay toys made in the shape of dolls and animals. Egyptians also had board games, probably for adults.
Ancient China
Ancient Chinese children had all kinds of toys. Toys that made noise were especially popular, like rattles, whistles and bamboo flutes. They also played with colorful marbles, small carved figures of animals and dragons and all kinds of puppets and masks. Their favourite, as you might guess, were and still are - kites!
Ancient Greece and Rome
Our western civilization is based on these two monumental cultures, and the way kids play now has not changed much since then! You might be surprised to find out that Ancient Greek kids had their own terracotta piggy banks since early childhood. They also had hula hoops, yoyos, marbles, ball games, spinning tops and ancient equivalents of Barbie Dolls in the form of clay figurines of young women. Greeks are probably the ones we can thank for the invention of the modern day swing as well.
Medieval times
The Middle Ages and Renaissance toys were a natural development of Ancient Greco-Roman toys, so most of the same kinds of toys were present but in a more elaborate form and from new materials. A lot of rag dolls have been found, and dolls were also made from wood, wax, gingerbread and even paper. Most toys had a religious connotation, so there were a lot of whistles, bells and rattles used in pilgrimages, as well as pilgrims’ shrine boxes. Military toys were on the rise, so blunted wooden toy swords and shields were featured and the ever popular toy soldiers were introduced to the already existing array of older toys. Pull toys, toy wagons, ball games and marbles were all very popular.
Modern age
Toys and games have seen the most rapid development in the history of the world in the last century. They have evolved together with technology and followed the appearance of new materials and industrial design. There has never been a vaster selection of toys than nowadays. Dolls evolved from wooden and clay figurines into our modern Barbie dolls, Bratz, action figures, bobbleheads, talking robots and transformers. We have many types and sizes of balls, marbles are still around but best looking yet, we have a lot of board games, the old ones like checkers and chess, and complex new games like Monopoly and memory games.
Game playing has grown out of the old context in the 21st century and now we interact with other game players via technological devices and we can play with any stranger anywhere in the world if we are on the same platform. We can play against computers and all on our own. We have tablets, iPads, game consoles, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons and Wii. In a sense, everything has changed, but nothing has changed – we simply can’t live without toys and games, it is the essential part of our human nature!
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