Oldest toy in Britain
The carved animal figure above may be the oldest child's toy in Britain. Archaeologists from the University of Bristol found it last month near Stonhehnge and think it's at least 2,000 years old. They dug it out of a young child's grave. There is some debate about whether the toy is a pig or hedgehog.
The Bronze Age figurine was likely made as a toy or in memory of the baby being stillborn or dying in infancy, archaeologist (Joshua Pollard) said..."Britain's Oldest Toy Found Buried With Stonehenge Baby?"
Evidence of toys during this period in British history is "extremely scant," Pollard said.
"In fact, it's very rare to find any kind of representational art in British prehistory—almost to the extent where you get the impression there's a bit of a taboo on making images of animals or people."
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That looks pretty cool, but I'm surprised at the unquestioned assumption that it's a toy. A representation figurine is found in a grave, along with a sacrificial goat? It sounds to me like this figurine could equally well have religious symbolism, be a talisman, or be itself a sacrifice (representations of sacrificed animals was a common form of sacrifice).
Make me think of peanuts "I got a rock"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYFfOJPMnsw
Knowing nothing about archeology, this may be an incredibly stupid comment, but I'll forge on anyway.
Wouldn't it be more likely that toys of that era would have been made of wood or cloth or other materials that would easily degrade into nothingness in a climate like that? In my mind, it seems logical that a toy would be a rare find as the chance of one being properly preserved is rarer. (unless of course, it's made of stone)
And just from general reading, it was my impression that children didn't have much in the way of specially crafted toys, and it is in fact a more modern phenom.
OK, so that's the oldest rock to wind a piece of string around. But how old is the oldest prosthetic forehead?
hey, i totally had something just like that!
Those two little knobby things on the bottom tell me it's the first Lego piece.
Mark Gordon @ #3 - I want one of those for my real head, but I suppose everybody does.
I think it looks like a pudgy rabbit. Also, is there any chance it's one of the successional civilizations that didn't approve of the animal likenesses? History has a nasty habit of being destroyed and replaced by the victors.
It's a pet rock!
Damn, it just got recalled. Too much lead paint.
because it is associated with a child burial, it is a "toy"? I don't know about you, but in my day we always buried the sacrifices with address labels so the right gods got them.
@9 Takuan, I guess that makes it a hedgehog. Had the child been sacrificed to a pig there wouldn't be bones to find with the rock.
Definitely a pig. Who the hell would make a toy rock hedgehog????
I suppose that might be the oldest toy in Britain, sure, those people are all savages down there.
In the cosmopolitan Orkney Isles of Scotland, they have of course much older stuff. The 5,000 year old beautifully carved pocket-stones of Skara Brae come to mind.
As Eric Idle has so poignantly told us, "Eef eet's nout Scottish, eet's CRAP! Aaaarrrgh!".
--Charlie
look buddy, long before sonicwall became synonymous with lurid badger sex, the great Hedgehog God-King Sonicex was worshiped in Britain. It was those damn Frenchies that had the Pig-God.
Pumpernickel,
Your blog link can go on your profile page. Thanks.
...it's a bear. They have it on its side and upside down.
They're missing the bottom part tho...
neolithic smorkin labbit?
I recall many years ago I saw a one panel cartoon depicting a room full of aliens gazing at a projection screen. On the screen is an image of a crumpled rusty beer can. There is an alien lecturer remarking, "We found so many of these scattered in so many places that we conclude they must have some religious significance."
They dug it out of a young child's grave.
Taking her toy hedgehog away... don't these archaeotypes have kids of their own?!
@#13 posted by Anonymous
Orkney is part of Britain.
Bob, they do!
"Kids today are spoiled rotten! Back in our day, we had to play with rocks!"
@20:
'Great Britain' is the name of the island that England, Scotland and Wales are (almost entirely) on. Orkney is a different island, off the coast of Scotland.
Sometimes this is shortened to 'Britain'.
'Britain' is also short for 'the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island', the country.
Awesome reference, MDH!
As for the toy itself, it's kinda depressing. Poor kid died young, and was buried with his favorite toy. Brings me right down.
It's not a toy. Nobody gives little kids rocks to play with. We all know what happens if you do.
IMO the strangest toy an archaeologist ever found is a pre-Columbian Aztec ceramic cat. What makes it so strange is that it has WHEELS, like a model racing car, like another, later sort of jaguar.
Now we all know aboriginal Americans never invented the wheel.
"They dug it out of a young child's grave." Classy.
"It's not a toy. Nobody gives little kids rocks to play with. We all know what happens if you do."
They end up killing the neighbor's kid, who in turn is buried with the murder weapon?
#22: Wow . . . you had rocks?
If we wanted rocks to play with we had to make them out of clay and fire them ourselves. Assuming we had time to grow trees for the fire.
It could go either way. Pigs and hedgehogs aren't shaped all that differently. (Just for the joy of language, the Scandinavian words for hedgehog are pinsvin/pinnsvin/pindsvin, "pin pig.")
I don't like the "sacred significance" argument because you can say that about anything. It's close to being a non-falsifiable hypothesis.
One of the oldest pots I've ever seen up close and personal was Anatolian, from the 6th or 7th century BCE. It was a fancifully decorated stiff-legged cow with googly eyes and a silly expression. It had working clay wheels so it would roll when you pulled it. The explanatory material hesitantly mentioned that it might be intended as a toy.
I rolled my eyes. If you saw that object in any extant human culture, you'd know it was a child's toy, meant for a toddler to pull around on a string. You can't prove that's what they used it for, but why not say "Hey, looks like a toy to us"?
Jimbuck, I own a stone hedgehog. And a couple of ceramic ones, too.
heh! now I have the image of someone strapped down on the altar with a googly eyed, wheeled cow surmounting him as the priests approach with the stone knife.
@ #4:
I suspect the oldest prosthetic forehead came from that era, too. The child probably had to hammer on that rock piglet, collect the seven dollars, and buy it.
If it is a Bronze Age artifact, it would be around 400o years old. The Bronze Age is identified from ca. 3500-1200 BCE, or around 3200-5500 years ago. Besides, marking an item thought to be 2000 years old found in England would more than likely place the item in Roman Britian. There were much more sophisticated toys dated to 2000 years ago. There is a great backgammon table at the Seljuk Museum in Izmir, Turkey which is dated from the 1st century BCE-1st c. CE. Also, King Tut's tomb (dated to around 14th . BCE) had a number of children's 'toys' that were very sophisticated and would be around 3300 years old. But if this item was found near Stonehenge, then it could be Paleolithic or Neolithic--much older than just 2000 years.
But if this item was found near Stonehenge, then it could be Paleolithic or Neolithic--much older than just 2000 years.
And probably predates the introduction of swine to Britain.
Antinous @33 - genuinely interested - when were pigs introduced to britain?
And probably predate the introduction of swine to Britain.
Which ones? the Angles? or the Saxons?
signed - A. Celt.
when were pigs introduced to britain?
800 BC, maybe. Doesn't anyone read the Mabinogion anymore?
MDH @ 35 - OW! I'm a Celt/Anglo-Saxon meld - can you be so sure that you're not?? At least I'm in no part Welsh!
Is the Mabinogion a reliable source here?
(have read it, have forgotten most of it)
Anyhow, surely the Mabinogion only records pigs in Wales?
My hedgehog! Dang, I'm gonna haunt the University of Bristol into you give it back me!
@23 Like you say, Britain (or Great Britain if you prefer), includes Scotland.
Orkney is part of Scotland (I lived there for several years).
Ergo Orkney is in Britain.
Sorry, but I'm a pedant - I just can't help it!
Hang on Sammich. What's wrong with being Welsh?