ARTICULATED DOLL
From crying plastic ‘babies’ to Barbie and Ken, dolls are as popular today as they have ever been – and the role of the artificial childhood playmate is certainly not a new one. More than 500 objects excavated at sites across the Roman empire have been identified as dolls, many of them found in the tombs of young girls, with the earliest examples dating from c200 BC. Ancient dolls – such as the fourth-century AD example shown left, discovered in a child’s grave at the Necropolis of Ontur in Albacete, Spain – were made of cloth, bone, clay, wood or ivory, and some even boasted jointed limbs. Interestingly, these ancient dolls were modelled on adult bodies: many featured breasts and elongated legs and torsos, as well as detailed faces and hairstyles. Elsewhere, the discovery of manufacturing moulds at religious sanctuaries, and the fact that many were made from fragile materials, indicates that ancient dolls had sacred functions
