Small wooden swors

According to the scientific medical definition, a child is a human being from birth to adolescence, during intensive growth. In practice, this is a period in which a small and young person requires constant care, specific food and clothing, education, and gradual introduction to the difficulties of independent living. An attribute of childhood are games, traditionally handed down from generation to generation, invented ad hoc, reproducing reality or completely abstract, and their 'hallmark' are toys, i.e. various objects used in play. Experience teaches us that any object can be an attribute of play, and many children's games simply do not leave any material traces, for example, children's beloved rhymes, spoken to the rhythm of beating hands against hands, jumping over real or imaginary obstacles - examples of this type can be multiplied. Toys should also fulfil socialising and educational functions, apart from typically playing. Following this assumption, miniature tools and weapons should prepare for specific functions in adult life, e.g. dolls and miniature household objects should prepare for life in the family and fulfil parental functions. The reproduction of reality in miniature is simultaneously a vital clue in the process of reconstructing the past. Toys imitating "adult" models were undoubtedly conducive to the process of socialisation, namely, assimilation by a child of a system of values, norms and patterns of behaviour binding in a given community, and skills enabling him/her to enter the world of social institutions. A group of such toys includes militaria, including a wooden sword found during excavations in Kamień Pomorski, which imitates a real iron weapon.

Anna Bogumiła Kowalska