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Child play
Sources in formal art and burial
are ambiguous: where apparent games are depicted, they are highly idealised,
and may relate to the theme of fertility, rather than to the leisure of
children. Note however, the difficulties in distinguishing between child
play and the emphasis on fertility: ‘toys’ may be used to introduce children
to gender roles (see below), and games by children might include the same
implicit didactic functions.
Gaming
boards belong to the area of leisure for adults, rather than for children,
according to depictions in formal art
High infant and maternal mortality
rates accompanied the ubiquity of the theme of fertility and safe birth
in the iconographic archaeological record. However, explicit ancient labels
for small-scale female images are rare, and figurines have often been identified
as dolls. Consider late Middle Kingdom examples from Lahun.
Note the conclusion reached
by Joan Reilly from the evidence of female figurines depicted on tomb stones
of young girls in 5th-4th century BC Athens: she compared
terracotta figurines, often called dolls, and proposed to interpret the
figurines as anatomical votives intended to secure good health for the girl,
and specifically to secure menarche (Reilly
1997
Quirke
1998 (for an initial treatment of Middle Kingdom evidence from Lahun
and Egyptian fortresses in Nubia)
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