\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From crying plastic \u2018babies\u2019 to Barbie<\/a> and Ken, dolls are as popular today as they have ever been \u2013 and the role of the artificial childhood playmate is certainly not a new one.<\/p>\n More than 500 objects excavated at sites across the Roman empire<\/a> have been identified as dolls, many of them found in the tombs of young girls, with the earliest examples dating from c200 BC. Ancient dolls \u2013 such as the fourth-century AD, discovered in a child\u2019s grave at the Necropolis of Ontur in Albacete, Spain \u2013 were made of cloth, bone, clay, wood or ivory, and some even boasted jointed limbs.<\/p>\n Interestingly, these ancient dolls were modelled on adult bodies: many featured breasts and elongated legs and torsos, as well as detailed faces and hairstyles.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, the discovery of manufacturing moulds at religious sanctuaries, and the fact that many were made from fragile materials, indicates that ancient dolls had sacred functions in addition to their role as much-loved companions.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Noisy, usually brightly coloured and great to fling around: it\u2019s little wonder that the rattle has remained a firm favourite with babies across the centuries.<\/p>\n One of the oldest baby rattles ever found \u2013 a sealed terracotta ball containing tiny pebbles, dating back to c2200 BC \u2013 still makes a sound when shaken, as it would have for its tiny owner more than 4,000 years ago. This Bronze Age toy was discovered in Aksaray, Turkey, in 2016.<\/p>\n Three years earlier, a clay rattle in the shape of a pillow, filled with small balls, was discovered in pit tombs in \u0141\u0119gowo, Poland.<\/p>\n Even royal babies enjoyed making some noise \u2013 albeit with fancier toys \u2013 including the future Edward VI<\/a>, shown in a painting clutching his golden, sceptre-shaped rattle in c1538.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Trickier to master than it might seem, the yo-yo boasts a surprisingly long history: it\u2019s thought to have evolved from an ancient Chinese toy, the diabolo.<\/p>\n What\u2019s believed to be the earliest depiction of a yo-yo appears on an ancient Greek<\/a> vase from the fifth century BC, showing a young boy seemingly honing his yo-yo skills \u2013 though it has also been argued that he is twirling a disc known as an iynx, in a bid to attract luck in love.<\/p>\n The plaything\u2019s appeal quickly went global, with peoples ranging from the Maya<\/a> to the Romans trying to \u2018walk the dog\u2019 with terracotta, clay, wooden or even metal yo-yos.<\/p>\n Fast forward a couple of millennia and you\u2019ll find the future Louis XVII of France clutching a treasured yo-yo in a 1789 portrait.<\/p>\n Nearly a century later, the first US patent for the toy was granted, and in 1928 Filipino immigrant Pedro Flores made adaptations that enabled users to master new tricks, introducing it to a new audience \u2013 and bringing with him the name by which the popular toy is now known.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s said by some that the spinning top is the world\u2019s oldest recognisable toy \u2013 and it\u2019s easy to see why: the simple, gravity-defying design offers hours of repetitive fun. The toy even has its own international day, the second Wednesday of October.<\/p>\n One of the oldest spinning tops, made of clay and dating from around 3500 BC, was discovered at an archaeological site in Muqayyer, Iraq. But spinning tops have been found in various places worldwide, including China and Turkey, crafted from a wide range of materials.<\/p>\n A carved wooden spinning top was found in the tomb of ancient Egyptian pharaoh<\/a> Tutankhamun<\/a>, and one even gets a mention in Homer<\/a>\u2019s Iliad<\/em>. Designs varied: in ancient Greece and Rome, for example, the sides of a multi-sided top known as a teetotum<\/em> were marked with symbols, serving in place of a dice and used in gambling games.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unsurprisingly, marbles also have a long history. It\u2019s thought that cave people may well have played with small rounded pebbles or balls of natural clay many thousands of years ago. Indeed, small clay balls have been found around the world in ancient Egyptian<\/a> tombs, Native American burial grounds and Aztec<\/a> pyramids.<\/p>\n It was in 19th century Germany, though, that the creation of glass marbles really took off, aided by the 1848 invention of marble scissors, which revolutionised the process. Not long afterwards, in the 1880s, glass marbles entered mass production.<\/p>\n Towards the end of the century, American entrepreneurs decided they wanted a piece of the marble action and, in 1902, Danish immigrant Martin Frederick Christensen patented a machine that could make \u201cspherical bodies or balls\u201d.<\/p>\n By 1910, up to 10,000 marbles were being made every day at the MF Christensen and Son Company in Ohio. Marble-making was officially on a roll.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles\u2019 insistence that dice were invented by the legendary Palamedes during the siege of Troy<\/a>, dice have a far longer history.<\/p>\n In fact, the precursors of dice are believed to have been used by primitive people for the casting of lots to divine the future. And cube-shaped dice \u2013 similar to modern equivalents \u2013 have been found in excavations in China, dating from 600 BC, and in Egyptian tombs built around 2000 BC.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, the first written records of dice appear in the Mahabharata<\/em>, a Sanskrit epic completed more than 1,600 years ago. It seems that cheating is not a modern phenomenon, either: so-called crooked dice \u2013 tampered with to fix how they fall when thrown \u2013 have been found in ancient tombs, Viking burial<\/a> sites and prehistoric graves in North and South America.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From fun to exercise, dancing to hunting, hoops have been used by children and adults alike for many centuries. Hooprolling in ancient Greece was a form of light exercise, while Native Americans used hoops as a way of honing their hunting and harpooning skills, throwing poles through the moving hoops to increase their accuracy.<\/p>\n The Native American Lakota people are also known for their hoop dancing, beginning the routine with a single hoop, which represents the never-ending circle of life, and then adding additional hoops to represent other elements such as humans, animals, wind, water, and the seasons.<\/p>\n The hula hoop gained international popularity in the late 1950s, though, after the California-based Wham-O toy company began marketing plastic hoops: within four months, an estimated 25 million hula hoops were sold.<\/p>\n The world was in the grip of a hula-hooping frenzy: hooping in the streets was banned in three Japanese cities for allegedly increasing traffic incidents; and public demonstrations were banned in Jakarta for fear they might \u201cstimulate passions\u201d. Six months later, the fad had burned itself out. Whilst hula hoops remain popular, they never again reached the dizzying heights of 1958.<\/p>\n Believed by many to have been popularised in China around 3,000 years ago \u2013 although Malaysian, Indonesian, and South Pacific cultures are all also credited with being early kite users \u2013 kites have been flown for myriad reasons, among them to ward off evil, deliver messages, catch fish, spy on enemies and, of course, for sheer pleasure.<\/p>\n The earliest written account of kite flying is from 200 BC China, where Chinese General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty is recorded as flying a kite over the walls of a city he was besieging in order to measure how far his army would need to tunnel in order to breach its defences.<\/p>\nArticulated doll<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/GettyImages526354776-3b1cd14.jpg?quality=90&resize=259%2C413\" "\\"Remarkably")
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Rattle<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Yo-yo<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Spinning top<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Marbles<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/GettyImages74592895-302f2ca.jpg?quality=90&resize=570%2C413\" "\\"Young")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Dice<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/GettyImages475603599-1f56485.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C411\" "\\"Mosaics")
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Hula hoop<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/GettyImages1365866338-8bf05c3.jpg?quality=90&resize=321%2C413\" "\\"A")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Kite<\/h2>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/GettyImages3068373-5cd9bb7.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"A")
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/11\/GettyImages862413598-1b2c4e3.jpg?quality=90&resize=601%2C413\" "\\"The")
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