Early Ceramic and Stone Toy Marbles from the Thames Foreshore in London: Classification, Sampling Bias, and the Archaeology of Childhood Hardcover – July 2, 2024

This study examines a collection of more than three thousand toy marbles found on the Thames foreshore, mainly in the City of London. The majority of this assemblage comprises stone marbles made of limestone, marble, or sandstone; they were manufactured in Germany and Austria and date to the 17th and 18th centuries. There are also a significant number of Rhenish ceramic marbles, which mostly pre-date the stone examples. A small number of the stone marbles are of particular interest, in that they have been modified by the owner. Some are inscribed with the owner’s initials; others have ‘tally marks’, which probably functioned as a record of games won with that marble.The function of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and the effects of various forms of sampling bias on the PAS dataset are explored, with a focus on recording bias. The marbles from the Thames foreshore are used as a case study in an attempt to quantify the effects of some of these biases.The significance of the Thames collection of marbles as part of the corpus of early children’s toys is discussed, making particular reference to the Museum of London’s holdings of base-metal miniatures and toys. Modifications made to specific examples of children’s playthings are studied and the potential significance of this in the context of the archaeology of childhood is considered. Read more