How We Play

The central tenant of toys is entertainment first, and whatever else comes along with it (such as, say, education) is a wonderful perk. We can't exactly expect toys depicting archaeology or the ancient world to be exactly accurate, because it's an unfortunate fact of life that most kids don't want to spend their play time filling in an application for a permit that will allow them to acquire a temporary license to spend the next ten days very, very carefully shoveling dirt. (If you were a child like that, I applaud you, but I'm going to venture that you're in a minority here.)

Lesson One: This is not archaeology. It's paleontology.
We're not dealing with paleontology.

Games like to be fun as well, but it's a little easier to sneak those educational tidbits in. Dig like an archaeologist! Answer trivia on the ancient world! The difference between games and toys, it seems, is that games force some semblance of structure, and so if they want you to be educated, then you're just going to have to be educated. With toys, you aren't held back by the same constraints. If you want, you can have your caveman and his pet pterodactyl get in a spaceship and save the princess. You'd be factually wrong, but you can do it.

Then there's the other stuff, costumes and decorations and books and who knows what else. If it's got something to do with human history and it's supposed to be fun, it probably applies to what this blog is about. In fact, we might even address the inverse, where we look at how toys and games and stuff of the ancient world are portrayed in the media.

Because that's what this blog is all about. It's about archaeology and the toys, games, and other random stuff that go with it. We're going to look at examples and pick them apart as to what is good with them and what, unfortunately, is not. And hopefully have fun in the process.