What does a toy mean to you? Is it just anything you play with; for example, two pieces of wood, a rock or a piece of cloth? While these may serve as toys sometimes, we really mean something more than that by the word “toy.”

A toy is usually something to amuse children that in some way mimics what grownups do. A gun, a car or wagon, a doll, or a little house are such toys. So are balls and tops. But since children, from the beginning of time, have liked to mimic grownups, we can assume that toys have probably existed since the earliest history of man.

Archaeologists have dug up in the ruins of ancient cities such toys as clappers, rattles, tiny pots, and miniature animals of clay, bronze, and lead. In the ruins of an ancient Persian city, they found a toy lion which stands on wheels. In the stand is a hole for a string with which to pull it, just as such a toy might be made today. And this toy is about 3,000 years old!

In ancient Egyptian ruins, they have found balls, tops, and dolls. In fact, they even found a little bread kneader which is worked with a string. We know that both Greek and Roman youngsters had clappers, wagons, and carts. In Cyprus, they have found toy wine carts, which children must have played with just as you might play with toy trucks today.

During the Middle Ages, children played with clay horses, armed knights, and bows and arrows. During Renaissance times, toys were often made by skilled workmen and were miniature copies of the weapons and household goods of that time. It seems that girls always liked to play house and the boys, war games!

One of the reasons we can’t trace toys back to prehistoric times is that they were usually made of wood. Wood decays quickly in the ground and these toys from the earliest days of man can no longer be found.