1917.53.516

Collection type

Object

Description

Jointed pottery doll holding a pottery ball in each hand.

Geographical reference

Greece

Europe > Southern Europe > Greece

Person

Field collector Edward Burnett Tylor

PRM source Anna Rebecca Tylor

Date / Period

Archaeological period: Iron Age, uncertain

Date collected

By 1917

Acquisition information

Donated: 1917

Materials and processes

Material Pottery

Dimensions

Length: max 145 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1917.53.516

Research and responses

Jointed Greek pottery dolls have primarily been uncovered in Athens, Corinth and surrounding areas, as well as the Greek Islands and Asia Minor. While the examples in the Pitt Rivers Museum are unclothed, there are excavated examples of both nude and dressed dolls. These dolls have largely been uncovered at gravesites and sanctuaries dedicated to Greek Goddesses such as Artemis and Demeter.It should be noted that the original location of these dolls is undetermined, as they are thought to have been moved to deposits within the sanctuary walls after they were consecrated. The graves that the dolls have been found in are believed to belong to female children- usually because of the other funeral offerings found with them, since a determination of the sex of the individual from their bones is not always possible.

Archeologists have long debated the function of jointed pottery dolls because of their contradictory properties. Some scholars believe that, because the dolls have jointed limbs (some rarer examples have jointed knees and hips, allowing them to become seated), this is an indication that they were meant to be moved and played with. Meanwhile, others believe that their fragile materiality suggests that they were not meant for play. In Ancient Greece, dolls were closely linked to marriage rituals, and it is believed that girls would dedicate their dolls to the gods before their wedding, marking the end of their childhood. The Palatine Anthology includes an epigram about a girl named Timareta who dedicates her dolls to the virgin Goddess Diana that scholars often reference in relation to dolls. One translation of the epigram reads: “Timareta, the daughter of Timaretus, before her wedding, hath dedicated to thee, Artemis of the lake, her tambourine and her pretty ball, and the caul that kept up her hair, and her dolls, too, and their dresses; a virgin’s gift, as is fit, to virgin Dian.” However, it is also debated among some scholars that there may be a scribal error, and that a bride would actually give up a lock of her hair rather than a doll. Another epigram describes a bride giving up a lock of her hair and astragal dice before her wedding. For boys in Ancient Greece, toys were also objects that were dedicated to the Gods to mark the end of their childhood.

Although the majority of scholars can agree that dolls were linked to childhood in Ancient Greece, some argue that because the majority have been discovered at temples and gravesites, they were used only as religious votives, particularly for girls who experienced an untimely death before marriage. However, others argue that the fact that jointed dolls have been found at children’s gravesites demonstrates “ample proof that dolls were among the most precious toys.” Another school of thought asserts that jointed pottery dolls might have been used for both, perhaps with material differences between the dolls played with in life and those played with in the afterlife. There are examples of objects from Ancient Greece with “non-functional” counterparts such as terracotta balls, usually found in the graves of adolescents, which show detailed seam patterns, replicating the appearance of the original “functional” leather balls. However, Gutschke concludes that, in the case of terracotta dolls, there have been no direct parallels found made from non-perishable materials (although there are earlier examples of jointed dolls made from less perishable materials, such as wooden jointed dolls from Ancient Egypt and later examples made from bone found in Rome). Therefore, it could be assumed that either the jointed dolls used in non-funerary contexts were made from similarly perishable materials, or that the terracotta jointed dolls themselves were used as toys. This is a possibility, since terracotta jointed dolls have been excavated from courtyards and floors in domestic contexts (mostly in Olynthos).

Sources:

Elderkin, K. M. (1930). Jointed Dolls in Antiquity. American Journal of Archaeology. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 455-479. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/498710

Gutschk, F. (2019). Greek Terracotta Dolls: Between the Domestic and the Religious Sphere in Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas. pp. 215–222. Doi: 10.1163/9789004384835_016.

Search terms: Toy and Game, Figure, Pottery, Doll Figure