Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (2) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.2.084-092

Annotation:  Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic of the Eastern Adriatic and the Problem of the Regional Midd Insight into Ceramic Technologies at the Maikop Site of Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (4th to 3rd Millennia BC) Burials with Gold Ornaments in the Caucasian M Archaeozoological Studies at Konoplyanka, the Southern Trans-Urals Burials in Anthropomorphic Jars in the Philippines The Tamga Signs of the Turkic Nomads in the Altai and Semirechye: Comparisons and Identifi cations Belt Sets of the “Redikar Type” in Medieval Cemeteries of the Volga Finns An Assemblage from a Medieval Burial at Lake Parisento, Gydan Peninsula, the Arctic Zone of Western Finds of Medieval Coins from Eski-Yurt, Crimea Children’s Games in the Sociocultural Space of a Siberian Town: Historical and Archaeological Contex On the Methodology of Studying Palimpsests in Rock Art: The Case of the Shalabolino Rock Art Site, The Use of Remote Sensing, Geophysical Methods and Soil Analysis in the Study of Sites Disturbed by Miklouho-Maclay’s Legacy in Russian- and English-Language Academic Research, 1992–2017 Remnants of the Snake Cult Among the Khakas (Late 19th to Mid 20th Century) “Taiga” and “River” Components in the Nanai Socio-Tribal Organization at Lake Bolon, the Lower Amur The Armenian Epic Poem “Daredevils of Sassoun” and the Mahabharata: Similarity of the Ethnographic S Antemortem Cranial Injuries in the Altai Mountains Pastoralists of the Scythian and Xiongnu-Sarmatia   

Children’s Games in the Sociocultural Space of a Siberian Town:
Historical and Archaeological Context

M.P. Chernaya¹ and S.F. Tataurov^{1, 2}

¹National Research Tomsk State University, Pr. Lenina 36, Tomsk, 634050, Russia

²Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This article describes a collection of toys from a homestead in the medieval town of Tara, the Omsk Region, considered in a broader historical context. This study focuses on the spatial arrangement of toys on the ground plan of the homestead, evidencing the overlap of the adult’s world with the world of children, which is relevant to the development of children’s self-awareness and socialization through play. Games are an active way for children to organize their space within the adults’ world and using its model. Toys help them assert themselves and “inhabit” the domestic world of the homestead. The children’s presence in the space of the house - homestead - town is marked by various toys, such as mock weapons, hard and soft balls, whistles shaped like birds, tiny dishware, knucklebones, svaikas (sharpened iron pins, which, when thrown, were meant to stick in the ground inside iron rings), mumblety-peg, etc. The reconstruction of children’s games within the excavated homestead can be projected onto the entire town, since homesteads were the main habitats. Children belonging to various social classes played inside houses, in backyards, pastures, and areas between the homesteads. Because the living zone was mastered through play, games played an important role in the organization of the town’s sociocultural space. As the children grew, their living space expanded beyond the family’s limits.

Keywords: Children’s games, toys, localization, living space, Siberia, Tara, archaeology