To tell the history of toy-making from its earliest days it would be necessary to follow the story back through many centuries, for the archaeologists, in delving among the tombs of ancient Greece and Egypt, have made the surprising discovery that children played with dolls, and jointed dolls at that, more than five thousand years ago.
Moreover, by the side of these dolls scientists have unearthed other playthings that children still crave: doll's furniture, animal toys and toys with wheels, illustrating the methods of transportation of those early days.
These same scientists claim that the custom of playing with dolls and other toys is as old as the world itself and that playthings are, and always have been, just as necessary a constituent of human health and development as either food or medicine.
They claim that the reason that boys and girls crave toys is that nature requires them, and to deprive children of such playthings would be to retard their mental growth and development.
The Latin word trochus means a hoop for children. The hoops of Roman children were made of bronze and iron and were rolled by a sort of a crooked stick and sometimes had small bells attached.
Pupa, the Latin word meaning "a little girl," applies to dolls which were made from rags, wood, wax, ivory and terra cotta. When the Greek girls of that time married they dedicated their dolls to Artemis; the Roman girls, to Venus; but, if they died before marriage, their dolls were buried with them.
The Latin word crepundia meant children's playthings, such as rattles, dolls, toy hatchets and swords.
The toys made during the middle ages for the children of noble families and rich merchants, show special care and fine workmanship. Many of them were of a religious nature in the form of the Cross of the Crusaders, or military in origin, like miniature knights on horseback. The toys of this period were generally carved by goldsmiths.
The American Indians and the Esquimaux made dolls from bits of skin and fur of wild animals and gaily decorated them with shells, beads and feathers. They also carved small models of animals and human beings from wood and bone.