CHILDREN’S TOYS AND GAMES IN LITHUANIA OF THE 13TH–17TH CENTURIES (BASED ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA)

       The subject of this work is children’s toys found during archaeological excavations. The geographical delimitations are the current territory of Lithuania, but the work also uses plentiful archaeological and iconographical sources of other European states for the purposes of analysis. Chronologically, the work investigates the period from the 13th to the 17th century inclusive, i.e. the Lithuanian Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.
       The main term used in the work, “toys”, is used to mean only the artefacts whose main function is that of a toy or a means of game. The analysis of archaeological artefacts is aggravated by the fact that any article may become a toy in a child’s hands. Thus, only the artefacts whose prototypes are found in present- day children’s games or which are described as toys in written sources can undeniably be regarded as toys.
       Beside written sources, visual arts of the period in question also serve an important source of information. Children and their toys were first depicted in paintings, wood carvings and book or manuscript illustrations around the 14th century. The theme was especially strongly reflected in the works of the mid– 16th century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (15??–05.09.1569†).
       This work focuses on the analysis and interpretation of archaeological findings, the circumstances and the context of sites, in which they were found. The work analyses 143 individual archaeological artefacts or their fragments. The toys are typologically divided into seven groups: toys of warfare, daily life, farm, care, entertainment, music and sports. The groups are further subdivided into subgroups, families, classes, types, subtypes and versions. The typology table presents only the toys found in Lithuania. However, with regard to a larger European context, the scheme is created so that new artefacts could complement the general system without distorting it.
       The first group of archaeological findings is toys of warfare. It comprises 3 fragments of wooden offensive weapons – a nib of arrow or a spear and two of toy sword handles (13th–16th c.). The group of daily life toys is divided into two subgroups – work tools and utensils. The former subgroup comprises a wooden spade and two little knives (13th–16th centuries). The latter may also be considered offensive weapons. The third group, farm toys, includes a subgroup of transport means, which is further subdivided into water and land transport families. The former comprises a little boat carved from pine and the latter is represented by a wooden wheel in the form of low cylinder and an artefact unique in Europe – an axle of toy carriage (13th–15th c.). Care toys, anthropomorphic figurines, are represented by only two findings – clay and wax dolls (15th– 17th c.). The entertainment toy group comprises two classes of inertia toys: whirligigs and spinning tops. To date, only two wooden whirligigs and one wooden top have been found (14th c.).
       The group of music toys is more numerous and divided into subgroups of idiophones and aerophones. The family of plucked idiophones is represented by 6 metal jew’s harps (14th–17th cent.). The aerophone group is subdivided into three families. The family of free aerophones comprises 30 bone toggles (11th–18th cent.). The family of flutes without whistle is represented by a wooden pipe (14th– 15th c.) and the family of flutes with whistle includes 20 clay whistles (15th–19th c.).
       The most abundant group of artefacts found in Lithuania, 71 findings, are attributed to the group of sports toys. Sports games require open spaces; therefore, they must have been played mostly outside or in big rooms. The group comprises three classes of accuracy family games: balls, knucklebones and marbles. To date, archaeological excavations present only a wooden ball (14th–15th cent.) and 20 leather balls or their fragments. Written and iconographical sources point out that balls were used to play various games in the 13th–17th centuries: cricket, skittles, tennis, badminton and a version of football. All rather numerous leather balls and their fragments (14th–16th c.) are divided into two versions according to predominant measurements (diameters of 57–70 mm and 75–95 mm). Admittedly, the subdivision is relative as differences in size are too negligible to attribute different sizes of balls to different uses. The knucklebone class is represented by 31 findings. In the game of skittles they used a proximal phalanx of cattle which was either filled with lead or prepared to be filled in (14th–19th c.). The third class of sports games are marbles. There are 19 stone, bone, clay and glass findings in this category (14th–18th c.), most of which are small, 1–2 cm in diameter, and most probably used for a game similar to the present-day curling.
       The data base including 143 artefacts dated 13th–17th centuries found in Lithuania reveals that as many as 103 toys were found in one single site – Vilnius castles. The analysis of geographical spread of toys thus loses value and one-off findings sometimes have to be interpreted as an individual type and relatively attributed to the entire territory of Lithuania. The assessment of quality of toys and their surroundings shows that all toys found in Lithuania should be considered to be urban children’s toys.
       The majority of toys found in Lithuania are analogous to the findings in other European countries. This leads to a supposition that children’s games as well as other occupations of their daily lives were similar throughout Europe. So for the existing data are too scarce for an in-depth comparative study. The hopes should rest upon future interdisciplinary studies, which would provide us with new sources of information and/or processing tools.

LIST OF TABLE

       Catalogue of finds.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

       Fig. 1. Typology of children’s toys found in Lithuania (picture by P. Blaževičius).
       Fig. 2. Children’s toys and games in the 17th century (Orme, 2003, 177, fig. 66).
       Fig. 3. Toy room in an urban resident’s house. Miniature from a manuscript of the 15th century (Zöllner, 1979, 208, Abb. 128).
       Fig. 4. Children’s Games, 1560, painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (15?? – 05.09.1569†) (Frezel, 1977, 13–15).
       Fig. 5. A Renaissance tile from Vilnius Lower Castle depicting a child with toy horse and ball (VŽPR, 1991, 41).
       Fig. 6. Artefact similar to a toy sword handle, 13th–14th century. (Kat. 3; photo by I. Kaminskaitė).
       Fig. 7. Fragments of toy swords found in Latvia (Caune, 1997, 133, att. 1 – detail).
       Fig. 8. Pocket knife. 16th c. (Kat. 5; photo by I. Kaminskaitė).
       Fig. 9. Pine-carved boat. 13th–14th c. (Kat. 8; Kernavė, 2002, 148, fig. 290).
       Fig. 10. Carriage axle. 15th c. (Kat. 9; picture by H. Manomaitis).
       Fig. 11. Carriage axle. 15th c. (Kat. 9; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 12. Carriage or walker wheel. 15th c. (Kat. 10; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 13. Ethnographical children’s scooters and carriage of early 20th century (Pliūraitė-Andrejevienė, 1990a, 100, pav. 2).
       Fig. 14. Child in walker (picture by M. Mieliauskas). According to a detail of an illustration of 15th century manuscript (Dossier pédagogique, Français 134, fol. 42v).
       Fig. 15. Clay anthropomorphic figurine. 15th– 17th c. (investigations by R. Legaitė in 1960; Kat. 11; photo by P. Blaževičius).
       Fig. 16. Wax anthropomorphic figurine. 17th c. (Kat. 12; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 17. X-ray of wax figurine (Kat. 12; photo by R. Vedrickas).
       Fig. 18. Double-blade spinning top. 14th century. (Kat. 14; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 19. Children playing with tops. Detail of a 15th century manuscript (Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 64r).
       Fig. 20.Wood top. 15th c. (Kat. 15; photo by I. Kaminskaitė).
       Fig. 21. Oval jew’s harp. 15th c. (Kat. 18; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 22. Triangle jew’s harp. 15th cent. (Kat. 17; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 23. Round jew’s harp. 15th c. (Kat. 20; Ožalas, 2003ša, 69, picture 366).
       Fig. 24.Playing the bone toggle (picture by M. Mieliauskas).
       Fig. 25. Bone toggles. Aukštadvaris – 1–5, 7 (Kat. 22–27; 11th–17th c.); Bubiai – 6 (Kat. 34; 12th–17th cent.) (Zabiela, 1995, 152, pav. 150 (detail).
       Fig. 26. Wood flute. 15th c. (Kat. 52; picture by M. Mieliauskas).
       Fig. 27. Clay animal shaped whistles. A – Kat. 62 (17th c.); B – Kat. 61 (16th–17th c.); C – Kat. 65 (16th–17th c.) (photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 28. Clay bird-shaped whistle. 16th–17th c. (Kat. 68; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 29. Leather ball.14th–15th c. (Kat. 89; picture by M. Mieliauskas).
       Fig. 30. Leather ball. 14th–15th c. (Kat. 89; photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 31. Fragments of leather balls. A – Kat. 83 (14th–16th c.); B – Kat. 84 (14th–16th c.); C – Kat. 85 (early 16th c.) (Ožalas, 2004ša, 182, picture 378).
       Fig. 32. Wooden ball. 14th–15th c. (Kat. 93; Ožalas, 2004ša, 168, picture 92).
       Fig. 33. Children play with wooden (?) balls. Detail of 15th century manuscript (Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 63r).
       Fig. 34. Children play with knucklebones; detail of the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Children’s Games (Frezel, 1977, 13–15).
       Fig. 35. Knucklebone filled with lead. Late 14th c. – early 15th c. (Kat. 109; Ožalas, 2004ša, 175, picture 358).
       Fig. 36. Knucklebone filled with lead. 17th c. (?) (Kat. 107; Ožalas, 2004ša, 175, picture 359).
       Fig. 37. Knucklebone filled with lead. Late 14th c. – early 15th cent. X-ray (Kat. 109; photo by R. Vedrickas).
       Fig. 38. Knucklebone filled with lead. 14th– 16th c. X-ray (Kat. 110; photo by R. Vedrickas).
       Fig. 39. Game dice – a cattle rib (photo by V. Abramauskas).
       Fig. 40. Two girls play with cattle ribs-dice. Detail of the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children’s Games (Frezel, 1977, 13–15).
       Fig. 41. Games with marbles (picture by M. Mieliauskas). According to a detail from the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Younger (1564–1638†) Fair with Theatrical Performance (1562) (Никулин, 1962, 157).
       Fig. 42. Stone marble. 15th c. (Kat. 133; Rackevičius, 2003šb, 218, pav. 628).
       Fig. 43. Clay marble. 16th c. (Kat. 132; Rackevičius, 2003šb, 225, pav. 678).
       Fig. 44. Glass marble. 15th–16th c. (Kat. 136; Steponavičienė ir kt., 2006šb, 147, pav. 367).

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© The Lithuanian Institute of History, April 2, 2009