The Cities of the Indus, Part II

In the ancient world, apart from occasional glimpses in such authors as Homer and Herodotus and in the Greek Anthology, it is difficult to picture children as other than small grown-ups, seen but not heard, perhaps taken away from home at a tender age, as in Sparta, or taught the rudiments at home or in primitive schools—with very little to amuse them and few to understand.

In Harappa it looks at first as if children must have been stuffed dummies, since their elders seem to have led a dull, regimented life; yet there are many evidences that help to bring these children to life.

For example, many toys have been found in drains, as though they had been washed away with the bath water; then there is a surprising number of models that survive—carts, some with and some without draught animals, often movable; rattles, feeding cups, whistles, even a movable bull and a monkey designed to run up a stick; there is even from Mohenjo-daro a clay figure of a crawling infant with curly hair; and the carts remind one of modern toys that sell in thousands. Curiously enough, no dolls have survived, but at least we can span the millennia and imagine children like our own.