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REVIEW BY RP
Unlike other books from the 50 Finds series, Kayt Hawkins’ volume explores objects that are grouped not by geographical location or chronological period, but instead collected as an assemblage under the broad theme of ‘childhood’.
The majority of the chapters – as is to be expected from a book on childhood objects – focus on toys, divided into sub-topics including games, dolls, and so on. However, earlier chapters also touch on the delicate, yet important, topics of fertility and child mortality throughout history, bringing personal touches to these subjects by exploring them through the objects that the hopeful and the grieving have left behind in the archaeological record.
Though the book explains that the definition of childhood has changed throughout history, everyone was a child once. It is therefore impressive that this thoughtful presentation of a carefully selected group of objects, although succinct, manages to provide such a wealth of information about an extremely wide reaching topic.
50 Finds from Childhood: Objects from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
Kayt Hawkins
Amberley, £15.99
ISBN 978-1398114852
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