Les jouets antiques (Déjà des grosses "marques" qui envahissent la Gaule ?)

The host owns a collection of figurines and knick-knacks (Boba Fett helmet, Smaug dragon, Lego bricks) as an adult, raising the question of whether this is a new phenomenon.

Did Roman emperors play marbles in their palaces? Did Spartans carry a doll in their kit before battle?

Archaeologists have uncovered millions of miniatures and toys from antiquity, offering a unique perspective on how these societies related to games and imaginary worlds.

Most ancient toys that have survived are likely votive offerings or symbolic reproductions found in religious or funerary contexts rather than everyday objects.

In the 4th century BCE, Plato praises play but insists that adults must set precise rules for children to follow, because play is a serious matter.

• Play allows children to acquire qualities they will need in adult life. • This educational dimension is rooted in Greek etymology: child (παῖς), to play (παίζω), to educate (παιδεύω). • The idea of learning through play dates to antiquity, visible in modern words like pedagogy and encyclopedia.

• The Gymnasium: a place for physical activity (running, wrestling, ball games). • The Sanctuary: a small sacred grove on the outskirts, offering refuge from summer heat.

Plato emphasizes the need for a nurse to supervise children to prevent excess, as their status as children does not permit them everything.

A group of children from Boeotia amused themselves by hanging the sacred statue of Artemis with a rope, which constituted an enormous sacrilege discovered by adults.

• The children were stoned to death. • A violent epidemic broke out shortly after. • The Pythia declared that Artemis was not angry at the children but at the population that had punished them so cruelly.

To end the epidemic, the Pythia ordered that the children be buried according to custom and an annual sacrifice be offered in their memory. The sanctuary took the name Artemis-the-Hanged.

Picking up a fragment of a sacred object fallen on the temple floor was also considered sacrilege punishable by death.

• Children rode sacred goats. • Children drove small carts pulled by a goat dedicated to Dionysus.

The youngest children helped the community overcome difficulties through their play.

Children saved local festivals dedicated to Heracles by proposing to substitute a toy handmade by them for a ram (prevented by flooding from reaching the sanctuary): apples into which they stuck pieces of wood for legs and horns.

Heracles was delighted with the gift made by the children and the ritual continued with the offering of apples instead of the ram.

• Dolls molded in terracotta with articulated joints. • Some likely had the ability to walk thanks to a stick or cord fixed in the back or rear of the head.

Greek literary sources are completely silent about little girls playing with dolls, though these dolls were likely part of rituals marking the transition to adulthood.

During wedding rituals, young women deposited the symbols of their childhood at temples, which explains why most dolls have been found near temples or sanctuaries rather than within homes.

Articulated dolls found in funerary contexts accompany adolescent girls already old enough to undergo wedding rituals, not young children.

From the 3rd century BCE, the Romans adapted Greek techniques and blended them with Etruscan pottery methods to create the finest dolls, improving quality and accelerating production rates.

• Figurines manufactured in series. • Sometimes painted with gold by merchants to create an illusion of luxury. • Miniatures that are neither quite toys nor quite trinkets.

Every Roman family had a small altar devoted to household deities (Lares). These dancing statuettes wear light clothing and a dog-skin belt, and their worship concerns the inhabitants of the house and its clients.

Compita (small roadside sanctuaries) allowed distant residents to worship the Lares or the emperor from afar without leaving their estate, with as many doors as there were estates nearby.

Wealthy Roman citizens possessed masks (imagines maiorum), terracotta portraits of ancestors, kept in a small sanctuary often located in a kind of closet.

These masks were not used as toys but as a space of memory and respect dedicated to honoring the family dead.

• Masks are deliberately stylized, the ancestor always shown in old age. • The face is dry and stern with intentionally authoritative features. • This representation promoted order, frugality, and self-control.

Roman aristocrats organized processions of these portraits to display the honor of their genealogy, a practice that gradually spread to all families, even freed slaves.

After the colonization of Gaul, dozens of workshops producing Gallo-Roman figurines are known. Potters specialized in dolls are called coroplasts (figurine makers).

• The best-known coroplast to historians. • His mark appears on a wide variety of figurines (deities, animals, couple scenes). • His productions flooded all of Gaul, found as far as Austria.

Two of Pistillus's workshops were discovered in Augustodunum (present-day Autun in Saône-et-Loire), one in 2019 and the second in 2010 near the Arroux gate. These workshops contained hundreds of pottery kilns and many molds and tools.

The name Pistillus concealed a very large industry with dozens of employees, testifying to massive and structured production.

Augustus, founder of Augustodunum in the early 1st century, was a very playful emperor according to historian Suetonius, spending time with his adopted grandchildren playing with nuts and possibly precious agates.

Rome wanted to take advantage of the new city to display its splendor and power, equipping it with many monumental elements: walls, amphitheater, and temple of Janus in place of an old place of worship.

• Figurines are shaped from very fine white clay allowing many details. • Molded in two halves then assembled with a band of clay diluted in water. • This technique allows rapid and efficient production.

The aim was to allow the poorest to purchase cheap statues that resemble expensive bronze models from a distance.

• Mother goddesses and Venus. • Busts of children in abundance. • Representations of pilgrims or worshippers.

• Scenes of couples in bed. • Babies in cradles accompanied by a dog.

Rams, roosters, pigeons, and other animals. Also produced oscilla (terracotta discs hung in Roman homes) with erotic scenes.

Archaeological studies and discoveries in consumption contexts suggest production in the early decades of the 3rd century, estimated between 200 and 250 CE.

It is difficult to say whether Pistillus's figurines were intended solely for religious purposes, if some served as decoration, or if they functioned as toys (Legos and Playmobils of the year 200).

• Potters and coroplasts reproduced secular figures like gladiators found in the Allier valley. • Impossible to know if these gladiators were celebrities of their time or generic figures. • Also found on many oil lamps.

When a business becomes big, it attracts counterfeits and knock-offs. Some workshops copied competitors by over-molding their production, losing details and producing mediocre finished objects.

Though Barbie, Lego, and Funko Pop were mentioned for humor, it was impossible to compare these ancient toys to our contemporary collections.

Practices surrounding ancient toys were extremely varied and continually evolved over time.

• Mystical trinkets protecting the home. • Objects expressing social status. • Religious and funerary items.

We cannot say that these toys of our ancestors were Funko Pops, because their nature was fundamentally different from our modern collectibles.

The episode was written by Arkeotoys, whose show is recommended for more details. The help of viewers through sharing is requested to support the Nota Bene channel.