#plangon

This terracotta figurine was created nearly 2,500 years ago, and it was likely designed as a toy. The doll is positioned above a small tray, and its torso is equipped with a set of pins (located in the waist and shoulders) that allow the figure to lean up and down, gently pushing the rolling pin back and forth across the tray as if preparing food.

Above: another view of the same doll

This is not the only known example of an articulated doll from ancient Greece. Many so-called "dancing dolls" (also known as plangones) were created throughout the Greco-Roman world.

Above: bone figurine with articulated limbs, from ancient Greece, c.350-250 BCE

As this book explains:

Female dolls with attached limbs known as plangones, korai, or nymphai were made in numerous areas in Greece over a considerable span of time from the Geometric to the Hellenistic periods. Male dolls also exist but were far less popular. Although made out of a wide range of materials, including wood, bone, ivory, marble, wax, cloth, and alabaster, dolls of terracotta are by far the most common.

The same book goes on to describe some of the other toys that were created and used by the ancient Greeks:

In antiquity, play was as much an integral part of growing up as it is today, and the ancient Greeks possessed a wide variety of toys and games. Both the archaeological record and ancient literature provide information about these, only some of which overlaps. The most common toys preserved include rattles, dolls, knucklebones, figurines, miniature vessels, miniature furniture, and miniature animals, some of which are wheeled and some of which have riders. Less common are balls and wheeled carts.

Ancient toys have been unearthed in many other parts of the world, too.

Above: a wheeled horse from Roman Egypt, c.50-250 CE

Some of the rattles, pull-toys, articulated dolls, and mechanical figurines from Mesopotamia and Egypt even date back to nearly 4,000 years ago.

Above: a mechanical dog figurine from Egypt, c.1390-1352 BCE, with a lever that opens and closes the dog's mouth

In one of my previous posts, I also mentioned a 3,500-year-old wheeled hedgehog figurine from Iran that may have been created and used as a toy.

Above: wheeled hedgehog from Susa, in modern-day Iran, c.1500-1100 BCE

Sources & More Info:

British Museum: Toy

Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past: Jointed Dolls and Play

American Journal of Archaeology: Jointed Dolls in Antiquity

University of Friboug: From Greece to Rome: Toys for Growing Up? (PDF in French)

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bone Figurine with Articulated Limbs

British Museum: Wheeled Horse

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Mechanical Dog

The Louvre: Hedgehog Toy from Susa