Doll

Reproduction of an articulated doll from Roman times. It is made of fired clay and the five parts that make it up (head + trunk, two upper and two lower extremities) have been molded by hand independently. The arms and legs are attached to the trunk by means of cotton cords threaded into holes made in the soft clay, which allows the articulation of its limbs. She is dressed in a black chiton (two-piece tunic sewn on the sides and joined on the shoulders with safety pins or buttons, as in this case), over which she wears the light blue stole tied at the waist with a string. as a belt. His face is oval and his features have been detailed through incision and excision on the fresh clay: long nose, very marked eyebrow arches, mouth with thick lips outlining a smile and protruding eyelids between which you can see the hollowing intended for an inlay. decorative like an iris. She has her hair combed symmetrically and gathered in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her hands, feet and trunk (not sexed) have been molded in a very simple way, in the former barely differentiating the thumb from the rest. She does not present polychromy.

The use of dolls as girls' toys is already documented in Egyptian and Greek culture. The appearance of female figurines in the Roman world is also abundant, both articulated dolls and rigid statuettes. Both can be made of bone, amber, ivory and wood, although for conservation reasons there are more numerous examples of terracotta figures, rigid, smaller in size and with varied iconography. Most of the known Roman statuettes and dolls have been recovered from children's trousseau in funerary contexts, which is why they have been identified as offerings to deceased girls or maidens. In the case of dolls, they are usually clearly sexed, with detailed faces and combed hair and, although they appear naked, they would wear clothing consistent with the age and social status of the girl who owns it. In some cases there is evidence of their use as puppets and polychromy.

Regarding the chronology of the Roman specimens, although they already existed since the 1st century AD. and became fashionable in the 2nd century AD, most of them come from funerary contexts of late Roman necropolises dated between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Some examples of articulated dolls are the four bone and one amber doll from Ontur (Albacete Museum), the Massimo doll, made of polychrome ivory (National Roman Museum of Rome), the ebony girl (National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona), four clay dolls from Ampurias (Museum of Barcelona and Museum of Gerona) or isolated pieces of terracotta from articulated dolls, such as the one from Córdoba (Museum of Córdoba) and those recovered in various necropolises in Cádiz (Museum of Cádiz).

You can also see a terracotta woman's head, with similar characteristics, in the Calatayud Museum.