Children have been playing with toys for thousands of years. Archaeologists believe the construction of toys dates back to at least the Pleistocene Era, with some Chinese archaeologists suggesting early humans were making stone toys from as early as 2 million years ago. An historical study revealed evidence that Neanderthal children played with toy axes.

Ancient toys ranged from extravagant, intricate, and expensive royal gifts crafted by masters, to the humblest playthings fondly made by a relative with everyday materials.

In Sumerian society, the children of important people were cared for in nurseries in temples and palaces while their parents went about their duties. Older people created toys and games for children. Children played with miniature toys, not only for fun, but also to help them learn from adults. They played with dolls, tiny animals, toy cars and boats. They were given safe weapons so they could imitate adults in hunting and battle. Weapons included bows, arrows, slings, long throwing sticks, and even boomerangs. They also had action games and toys like spinning tops, rattles, jump ropes, and a game almost like hockey, except that players used mallets and a puck.

Ancient parents kept babies and toddlers busy with rattles in the same way parents do today. Rattles could be fashioned from clay, wood, bronze, dried seed pods or flower heads, and they came in a variety of shapes such as spheres or boxes, and animal rattles were especially popular, including pigs, dogs, owls, and others.

Wheeled toys, which were often animals that children pulled along, haven’t changed over time. The child goes along and the animal follows along. These toys follow a similar pattern throughout most cultures and historical periods. Ancient clay pull toys have been found dating back to around 2500 BCE at Harappa in Pakistan. Later, brass and bronze elephants and horses were common playthings among Indian children from wealthy families. Mexican archaeological sites have recovered many small-wheeled animal artifacts from 1500 BCE.

Spinning tops are one of the oldest recognizable toys found at archaeological sites, having originated independently in cultures all over the world. In Iraq, archaeologists unearthed a 6,000-year-old clay top and even famous pharaoh Tutankhamun of Egypt had a wooden spinning top dating to 1300 BCE entombed with him.

Spinning tops made of metal, wood, fruits, seeds, or nuts, and have been found among ancient indigenous tribes across the globe. Some were set in motion with a string or rope coiled around it, so when the string was pulled quickly, it would unwind and spin in place. Both children and adults used these tops to gamble and “predict” the future.

Dolls have been carried under the arms of children throughout human history, and many consider them one of the oldest children's toys. And they weren’t just playthings. People also used dolls in magical and religious rituals. The earliest dolls date back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Homemade, they ranged from rudimentary playthings to elaborate art pieces made of almost anything including clay, stone, wood, bone, ivory, leather, plants, or wax. Dolls with movable limbs and removable clothing date back to 200 BCE. In Greece and Rome, it was customary for boys to dedicate their toy dolls to the gods when they reached puberty, and for girls to dedicate their toy dolls to goddesses when they married.

Boys also played with marbles made from clay, glass, faience, semi-precious stones, or even nuts. Stone marbles have been found at excavations near Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan, dating back to 2500 BCE. Marbles have rolled up at Chaldean, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian archaeological sites, and from these cultures made their way to Europe in the Middle Ages.

Knucklebones, or jacks as they are known today, is an ancient game often depicted in paintings and sculptures. It was usually played with five or ten small objects but was played in many different ways. For example, in ancient Greece, boys and girls threw tiny ankle bones of a sheep up in the air and caught them on the back of their hand or landed on a surface to be tallied up. Called astragaloi in Greek, this, too, was a game that was also applied to divination. Young women who played were playing with fate to find a good husband. Boys and men played jacks, for fun and money, in the same way “modern” children with a pair of dice .

When it comes to ancient toys, hoops were mostly rolled on the ground, often using a “stick.” The aim of the game was to keep the hoop upright. And at some point the child would twirl it around their middle with no hands

The ancient Greeks called the hoop a trochus. Children practiced hoop rolling in the gymnasium, and the hoop was also used for tumbling and dance. It was a popular pastime, but not counted as a “real” sport. Romans made their hoops out of bronze, iron, or copper, and the hoop needed to stand up to the level of the player’s chest.

Even in the ancient world, children liked to make noise. It’s no surprise that their toys made sounds as well. But somehow in the hands of a child the smallest toys make the loudest noises. Some of these were just miniature versions of common musical instruments, like clappers, rattle drums, or whistles. Ancient Mesopotamian children would harden clay discs and tie them together with rope and then whirl them around above their heads, creating a loud buzzing sound. Similar toys are known as bullroarers in other parts of the world. bullroarers originated in the Paleolithic period, dating back to 18,000 BC in the Ukraine!

nimal toys sparked the imaginations of children in ancient times. They were often made of clay, wood, bone, teeth, horn, or anything commonly at hand. Besides being play companions, animal toys also played an educational role by identifying various animals and their roles or uses in society at an early age.

Little toy boats inspired the imaginations of ancient children. The most well-preserved types of toy boats were Egyptian. These tiny boats were made from ivory, wood or clay. The Egyptian ship models found at ancient sites weren’t toys, but grave goods left in the tombs of prominent people as a magical representation of the boats used to ferry souls into the afterlife.

Children’s toy boats have been found at the sites of many maritime cultures. For example, archaeologists discovered a small, wooden, 1,000-year-old carved Viking ship on an ancient farmstead on the coast of central Norway.

In antiquity, children were typically buried with their toys, with the intention that they would continue to be children and play in the afterlife.