Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.33254/piaz.41.2.2
Traces of children’s play during the Late Bronze Age in the southern Carpathian Basin
Daria Ložnjak Dizdar
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
*
Snježana Vrdoljak
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Drnić
; Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Play is a timeless activity. Toys are an indispensable source for the study of childhood in the past, but only those made of more durable materials have survived. Reconstructing play in the Late Bronze Age is a complex process – from studying objects in child graves to documenting traces of play in numerous excavated settlements. The paper tries to present traces of children’s play during the Late Bronze Age in the southern Carpathian Basin on the basis of collected material evidence and interpretations of closed contexts and chance finds. The studied contexts and finds date from the 14th to the end of the 9th century BC and come from excavated cemeteries and settlements in continental Croatia, eastern Slovenia, and northwestern Serbia. The task seemed easy, given the amount of excavated and collected material, but it was quite challenging due to the ambiguous interpretations of objects that have been presented as toys in the literature. Material traces have been interpreted through the prism of childhood and child’s play during the Late Bronze Age in the southern Carpathian Basin.
Keywords
Late Bronze Age; graves; settlements; childhood; play; material traces
Hrčak ID:
324717
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2024.
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