The World's Oldest Toys..... (1 Viewer)

[MMC]

Take a stroll through the aisles of your local toy emporium, and you'll come away with the impression that kids need brightly-colored plastic, fancy electronic doodads, and a truckload of batteries in order to have any fun.

Whether that's true of today's youngsters or not, it definitely wasn't always the case. Some toys have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years. Which is older, the doll or the teddy bear? What familiar toys did the ancient Greek children play with? And what's the oldest toy of all? Read on for the answers.

Oldest board game: Senet
Date: 1320 BCE

You might think of chess or backgammon as being old board games, but they've got nothing on this. It's Senet, a game popular in ancient Egypt more than five thousand years ago. Exactly how to play it is a matter of some debate, as the Egyptians apparently weren’t sufficiently forward-thinking to carve the rules into the board. This particular example was buried with King Tutankhamun and is now on display at a museum in Cairo.

Oldest toy animal: Greek toy horse
Date: 950 BCE

Toy animals are common archaeological finds. They're still popular today, although we prefer plush, cuddly versions rather than the carved stone or wooden critters of our ancestors. Depicted here is a Greek pull-along toy horse, and while its string may not have survived, it’s not hard to imagine a modern three-year-old laughing with glee as he pulls it about the house. Kids haven’t changed all that much in three thousand years.

Oldest jigsaw puzzle: Spilsbury's Map
Date: 1767

Though the jigsaw puzzle seems timeless, comparatively speaking it’s not actually all that old. The first person to think of chopping up a picture into intersecting pieces was one John Spilsbury, an 18th-century British cartographer. He hit upon the idea of cutting up a wooden map and using the puzzle as a teaching aid -- and although he called it a “dissected puzzle” and not a jigsaw, the idea was born.....snip~

The World's Oldest Toys | Photo Gallery - Yahoo! Games

More to come.

 

[wolfie]

Take a stroll through the aisles of your local toy emporium, and you'll come away with the impression that kids need brightly-colored plastic, fancy electronic doodads, and a truckload of batteries in order to have any fun.

Whether that's true of today's youngsters or not, it definitely wasn't always the case. Some toys have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years. Which is older, the doll or the teddy bear? What familiar toys did the ancient Greek children play with? And what's the oldest toy of all? Read on for the answers.

Oldest board game: Senet
Date: 1320 BCE

You might think of chess or backgammon as being old board games, but they've got nothing on this. It's Senet, a game popular in ancient Egypt more than five thousand years ago. Exactly how to play it is a matter of some debate, as the Egyptians apparently weren’t sufficiently forward-thinking to carve the rules into the board. This particular example was buried with King Tutankhamun and is now on display at a museum in Cairo.

Oldest toy animal: Greek toy horse
Date: 950 BCE

Toy animals are common archaeological finds. They're still popular today, although we prefer plush, cuddly versions rather than the carved stone or wooden critters of our ancestors. Depicted here is a Greek pull-along toy horse, and while its string may not have survived, it’s not hard to imagine a modern three-year-old laughing with glee as he pulls it about the house. Kids haven’t changed all that much in three thousand years.

Oldest jigsaw puzzle: Spilsbury's Map
Date: 1767

Though the jigsaw puzzle seems timeless, comparatively speaking it’s not actually all that old. The first person to think of chopping up a picture into intersecting pieces was one John Spilsbury, an 18th-century British cartographer. He hit upon the idea of cutting up a wooden map and using the puzzle as a teaching aid -- and although he called it a “dissected puzzle” and not a jigsaw, the idea was born.....snip~

The World's Oldest Toys | Photo Gallery - Yahoo! Games

More to come.

I always found that children have more fun with cardboard boxes..

 

[MMC]

Oldest doll: Egyptian paddle doll
Date: 2000 BCE

Evidence of dolls is widespread among many primitive cultures, but most ancient dolls were made of perishable materials and did not survive intact. Here’s an exception: an Egyptian “paddle doll.” Made of wood and usually depicting female figures, paddle dolls were often buried with prominent individuals -- perhaps to provide them with something to play with in the afterlife.

Oldest yo-yo: Somewhere in ancient Greece
Date: 440 BCE

Believe it or not, the yo-yo is also one of the world’s oldest playthings. It’s at least two thousand years old, and examples survive from many ancient cultures, although they’re usually associated with the Greeks, who made them from wood, terracotta, and bronze. The pictured yo-yoer is from a Greek vase.

Oldest toy ever: A Stick
Date: ??

Yes, a stick. No, we're perfectly serious. According to The National Toy Hall of Fame, the humble stick, which was inducted in 2008, is probably the oldest toy in the world. Think about it: a stick could be a sword, a fishing pole, a writing implement, a bat, a boomerang...it’s only limited by the imagination. And they literally grow on trees. Even animals play with sticks -- and it’s a good bet our ancestors were playing with them long, long before recorded history started.....snip~


Seems we have much in common with our Dog. Toys.....What's the Oldest toy you have or has been passed down to you or of your family members? No Sticks.....Allowed! :mrgreen:

If possible try to find a pic of the oldest toy you have.

 

[clownboy]

So cool. Have to say, I was expecting pix of some mummy's twig and berries from the thread title. :mrgreen:

 

[MMC]

The Oldest toy I have is from the 1950's.....back then it was called a Wham O Pluto Platter.

Today they are called Frisbies.....and I have some from the 60's up until present day.

All came about from Frisbie Pie Pans.