Editing Toy (section)

=== Antiquity ===
[[File:Little horse on wheels (Ancient greek child's Toy).jpg|thumb|Little horse on wheels, [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] children's toy. From a tomb dating 950–900 BCE, [[Kerameikos]] Archaeological Museum, Athens]]

Toys and [[game]]s have been retrieved from the sites of ancient civilizations, and have been mentioned in ancient literature. Toys excavated from the [[Indus valley civilization]] (3010–1500 BCE) include small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys that could slide down a string.<ref name=Indialife>{{Cite web|url=http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Indialife.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919170202/http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Indialife.html|url-status= unfit|title=MrDonn.org Free Lesson Plans & Activities for K-12 teachers & students|archivedate=19 September 2008|website=}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=March 2022}} One of the earliest examples of children's toys is a set of three stone balls found in the tomb of a four-year-old girl at Xi'an [[Banpo]] Neolithic site.<ref name="GuoEymanSun3">{{Cite book |last1=Guo |first1=Li |title=Games & Play in Chinese & Sinophone Cultures |last2=Eyman |first2=Douglas |last3=Sun |first3=Hongmei |date=2024 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |isbn=9780295752402 |editor-last=Guo |editor-first=Li |location=Seattle, WA |pages=6 |chapter=Introduction |editor-last2=Eyman |editor-first2=Douglas |editor-last3=Sun |editor-first3=Hongmei}}</ref>

The earliest toys were made from natural materials, such as rocks, sticks, and [[clay]]. Thousands of years ago, [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] children played with [[doll]]s that had wigs and movable limbs, which were made from stone, pottery, and wood.<ref name=Maspero>{{cite book|last=Maspero|first=Gaston Camille Charles|author-link=Gaston Maspero|title=Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt|publisher=Project Gutenberg|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14400}}</ref> However, evidence of toys in ancient Egypt is exceptionally difficult to identify with certainty in the archaeological record. Small figurines and models found in tombs are usually interpreted as ritual objects; those from settlement sites are more easily labelled as toys. These include spinning tops, balls of spring, and wooden models of animals with movable parts.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Toby|title=Dictionary of Ancient Egypt|date=2008|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-20396-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/thameshudsondict00wilk/page/251 251]|url=https://archive.org/details/thameshudsondict00wilk|url-access=limited|language=en}}</ref>

In [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]], children played with dolls made of [[wax]] or [[terracotta]]: sticks, [[bow and arrow|bows and arrows]], and [[yo-yo]]s. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age, it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the [[Greek mythology|gods]]. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a [[rite of passage]] into adulthood.<ref name=Powell>{{cite book|last=Powell|first=Barry B.|title=Classical Myth; Third Edition|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=2001|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|pages=[https://archive.org/details/classicalmyth00powe/page/33 33–34]|isbn=978-0-13-088442-8|url=https://archive.org/details/classicalmyth00powe/page/33}}</ref><ref name="Oliver">{{cite web|title=History of the Yo-Yo|url=http://www.spintastics.com/HistoryOfYoYo.asp|last=Oliver|first=Valerie|year=1996|publisher=Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060809224918/http://www.spintastics.com/HistoryOfYoYo.asp <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=9 August 2006|access-date=30 October 2006}}</ref>

The oldest known [[mechanical puzzle]] also comes from ancient Greece and appeared in the 3rd century BCE. The game consisted of a square divided into 14 parts, and the aim was to create different shapes from the pieces. In [[Iran]], "puzzle-locks" were made as early as the 17th century (CE).{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}