Archaeologists excavating at the Torreparedones archaeological site in Córdoba, Spain recently unearthed a child's doll made out of terracotta sometime between the third and fifth centuries C.E.
J.A. Morena LópezThe terracotta doll from the ancient Roman era that was recently uncovered at the Torreparedones archaeological site in Baena, Spain.
Archaeologists working at the ancient Roman site of Torreparedones in southern Spain have uncovered a rare terracotta doll dating back at least 1,500 years, providing new insights into children’s toys and games in ancient Hispania.
Discovered in the ruins of the site’s eastern baths by municipal archaeologist José Antonio Morena López, this doll is one of only a handful of such toys ever found on the Iberian Peninsula.
“This piece is of great interest due to the rarity of such artifacts, which are very scarce in Hispania, although a few notable examples are known,” wrote Morena López in his new report, published in the journal Antiquitas.
The Discovery Of The Roman-Era Terracotta Doll At Torreparedones
Wikimedia CommonsThe ancient forum at the Torreparedones site.
The doll, which measures just over nine inches tall, was modeled in pale clay with a rough texture. Perforations in its shoulders and hips show that it once had movable arms and legs connected by wires or cords.
Along with the main doll, which was missing its head and arms, archaeologists recovered additional terracotta pieces likely belonging to other similar dolls: a right leg, a left foot, and an indeterminate limb with several holes for articulation.
These fragments were found in a large refuse dump built over abandoned baths between the third and fifth centuries C.E. Based on this chronology, Morena López noted that the toys likely originated during that same period.
Wikimedia CommonsThe eastern baths at Torreparedones that were eventually abandoned and turned into a dump, which is where the newly-found doll was left long ago.
The Torreparedones site, possibly known as Ituci Virtus Lulia or Bora in antiquity, was a Roman colony. The eastern baths where the doll was found were constructed in the first half of the first century C.E. and renovated toward the end of the century. By the second century, though, they were abandoned.
After abandonment, the bath complex became a dumping ground for domestic refuse including ceramics, glass, coins, bones, stable waste, and toys.
Morena López emphasized that the location of the find illustrates the everyday context of this artifact. “This fact is not strange,” López wrote, “since studies show that many of the catalogued pieces were found in houses, streets, and garbage dumps.”
Dolls In The Ancient Roman Era And What They Reveal About Childhood During Antiquity
“Toys are found in all cultures, and the Romans were no exception,” Morena López wrote, noting that previous excavations rarely documented ancient toys in detail because archaeologists once misinterpreted them as ritual objects.
J.A. Morena LópezThe right leg of the newly-discovered doll.
Roman children are now known to have played with dolls, carts, balls, and miniature household objects. Girls in particular often used articulated dolls, ones that have movable limbs, sometimes dressing them in specially-made clothing. These dolls, known as “pupae,” were typically made from fired clay, ivory, bone, or wood, though wooden examples rarely survive.
“They were instruments of play but also items bound up in rites of passage and memory,” Morena López explained in the study, referring to the dolls’ role as funerary offerings or votive dedications.
While rare, other articulated dolls have been found in the former Hispania, including an ivory example in Tarragona, a torso from Segóbriga, and five figures in Ontur made of bone and amber. However, the Torreparedones discovery is still exceptional for the context of it being found in a non-funerary setting.
J.A. Morena LópezOther examples of Roman dolls, found at Ontur.
Recent excavations at Torreparedones have uncovered other, more monumental remains — including temples, forums, and sanctuaries — which reveal much about the city’s political and religious life, but the doll provides evidence of something that is often overlooked: the lives of children.
“Children are very difficult to trace and find in interpretations of past societies,” Morena López noted in the study. “When they are mentioned it is as passive members of that society, perceived only in relation to adults and their activities.”
The Torreparedones doll, though fragmented, offers one of the few connections to Roman childhood in Spain.
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