Marble (toy) in Codd-neck bottles, which were often collected for play. In the early twentieth century, small balls of stone, identified by archaeologists as marbles, were found on excavation near Mohenjo-daro. Marbles are often mentioned in Roman literature, as in Ovid's poem "Nux" (which mentions playing the game with walnuts), and there are many examples of marbles from excavations of sites associated with Chaldeans of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. They were commonly made of clay, stone or glass. Marbles arrived in Britain, imported from the Low Countries, during the medieval era. In 1503 the town council of Nuremberg, Germany, limited the playing
Elgin Marbles his famous sonnet about the marbles titled "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles". Notable supporters of Elgin included the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon. A public debate in Parliament followed Elgin's publication, and Parliament again exonerated Elgin's actions. Parliament decided to purchase the marbles for the "British nation" in 1816 by a vote of 82–30 for £35,000. They were deposited in the British Museum, where they were displayed in the Elgin Saloon (constructed in 1832), until the Duveen Gallery was completed in 1939. Crowds packed the British Museum to view the sculptures, setting attendance records for the museum. William Wordsworth viewed the