section_path: History/Antiquity
section_name: Antiquity
paragraph_text: Antiquity
  
  Toys and games 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. 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.
  
  The earliest toys were made from natural materials, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs, which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. 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.
  
  In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terracotta: sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age, it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the 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.
  
  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).