This baby figurine of a pudgy toddler is one of many similar examples of ceramic sculptures of infants belonging to an ancient Mesoamerican ceramic tradition that flourished during the first millennium B.C.E. The figurines are hollow and often nearly life-sized (about 25 to 35 cm, or 10 – 14 inches high), made of white kaolin clay, or ordinary clay covered with white slip. The figurines are usually without clothing, but do not show genitalia. Like others, the head of this example is oversized and seems to show artificial cranial deformation used to shape infants' heads according to cultural aesthetic standards. Their downturned mouths and adult-like, slitted eyes are seemingly symbolic. This figure has wide outstretched legs with baby-like feet, and its arm is outstretched in an open gesture. Many of these figurines display such a reaching gesture, and some are shown crawling forward. Some baby-face figurines wear a helmet-like headdress.

While the sculptures have rarely been unearthed in archaeological context, scholars associate the large figurines with early Olmec archaeological sites in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico near the Gulf coast, with other heartland areas of the Olmec culture region, and nearby areas influenced by Olmec culture. The meaning of the infant figurines is unknown. Various theories have been put forward, whereby they represent elite lineages, deities, or infant sacrifices. They may be effigies that substituted for sacrificial victims. The facial expressions resemble those of the monumental stone sculptures at San Lorenzo and La Venta, but none of the infant sculptures have been found there, possibly because the soil acid destroyed any buried remains, or because they had already gone out of use by that period.

These images show a stone grave marker carved with symbols and a terracotta funerary urn containing the charred remains of an infant. The Tophet of Carthage is a cemetery for infants in the ruins of the North African city of Carthage, now located in a suburb of Tunis. It was once located on the edge of ancient Carthage, which was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BCE. The cemetery is the subject of historical controversy because both ancient texts and archaeological evidence point to the possibility that the children buried in the tophet were child sacrifices. The cemetery was used for over 600 years, between 730 BCE and 146 BCE. Changes in the grave markers and burials indicate three different periods of use.

The Carthage tophet has no adult graves, and many of the grave stelae are marked with dedications to Baal and Tanit, the patron deities of Carthage. The word tophet comes from the Hebrew topheth derived from "drum" or "place of burning," an open area for sacrifice. Numerous tophets have been identified in the eastern Mediterranean region. The Tophet of Carthage, excavated between 1920 and 1970, shows burials of young infants, interred in small vaults with beads and amulets, and sometimes the bones of small animals. Low thrones or stones marked the early graves.

In later periods, buried a layer above the original graves, sandstone markers were covered with stucco and painted yellow, red, or blue. Narrow, limestone grave stelae with pediments appear, inscribed with representations of Baal and Tanit. Many featured the sign of Tanit shown on the stela in the image—a triangle with a disc at the apex and a line through the apex with upturned ends, which looks perhaps like a child or a doll with outstretched arms.

Jewish and Christian scriptures refer to places of child sacrifice. Roman writer Diodorus Siculus described the sacrifice of upper class children to the deity Baal in 310 BCE, a reference seen as the main source of the claim of child sacrifice. Later elaborations made by writers even into the 19th century include the description of a metal fire pit in the form of the deity, with grates that mechanically tipped infants into the fire. Sacrifices to appease the deities or to ask favors seem to be supported by some inscriptions, but there may also be evidence that small animals were sacrificed in place of the children.

On the other side of the controversy are claims that the archaeological evidence is too sparse and inconclusive, and the texts may have been written out of ulterior motives, especially in view of Rome's wars with Carthage. No other classical sources mention the practice, and biblical references do not mention the tophet of Carthage.

There is also evidence that children's burial grounds were merely separated from adult cemeteries as well as pictorial evidence that the graves were regularly kept and supplied with offerings. The fact that burials were sometimes massed, and that some graves contain more than one child, may be evidence of disease epidemics as the population of Carthage grew. The inscriptions that refer to gifts and offerings may refer to sacrifice, or may refer to the hope of regeneration or fertility to the family who lost the child, meanings included in concepts surrounding both Tanit and Baal as deities.

This unusual bronze figurine of a female runner was possibly made in or near Sparta, Greece, between 520-500 BCE. Ancient Sparta was the only Greek city-state that provided girls with public schooling including physical education. Girls were praised for their swiftness and likened to prized racehorses in choral songs (called partheneia) sung by girls' choruses in Sparta and elsewhere. Spartan "virgins" also participated in the Heraea, games held at Olympia every four years in honor of the goddess Hera. Winners received olive crowns, shared a cow they sacrificed to Hera, and were allowed to dedicate statues of themselves engraved with their names. The bronze rivet on her right foot suggests that this figurine was possibly attached to a vessel or utensil at one time.

In what ways does this girl's body reveal that she was athletic? What might her clothing tell us about notions of girlhood in Sparta? Female athletes wore a short off-the-shoulder tunic like the one donned by this runner. It more closely resembled the semi-nude bare-breasted style of the legendary Amazons than the ornate and heavily draped Korai "maidens" elsewhere in Greece. What might account for the varieties of girlhoods throughout the Greek world?

Credit: London, British Museum 208. Photo: Museum, Courtesy of Trustees.

According to Vedic philosophy, the life span of each person is divided into four stages, or ashrams. The word ashram means "shelter," referring to the protective nature of these phases against the turmoil of life. These stages are Brahmacharya, Grahasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa, each of which has a specific purpose and guidelines defined in the Vedas, and are intended to order the lives of male members of the highest three castes.

The ashram called Brahmacharya is the stage of the celibate student. Entry into this phase involved initiation, which was prescribed for Brahmins (priestly caste) between age 5 and 16, for the Kshatriyas (warrior caste) between age 6 and 22, and for the Vaisyas (merchant caste) between age 8 and 24. Failing to undergo initiation during these age spans would mean loss of caste, or social status.

The Brahmacharya stage was a rigorous time of learning, when the high-caste boy was expected to acquire both religious knowledge and a craft or trade. A boy would wear the sacred cord around his chest to signify that he had entered Brahmacharya, and he would live in the teacher's house, serving him and treating him with utmost respect. In return, the boy's development was the responsibility of the guru. The student was to remain celibate so as not to be distracted from study. Among the goals of learning during this stage, memorization of Vedic texts was a priority, but archery, astrology, music, martial arts, and music were included. This selection is from a text that may date to the 5th century B.C.E. that prescribes proper behavior during each life stage.

The Phoenician terracotta vessel features a human face, the nose forming a narrow spout. The bottle is an archaeological find from Carthage, near modern Tunis, dated to 399 BCE-200 BCE. Archaeologists believe this object was a baby bottle. It could have been used to feed diluted wine with honey or other sweet liquid such as juice, milk, or thin porridge, cooked cereal made from ground grain. Such vessels, called guttus, were placed with Greek infant burials of the same period, placed in proximity to the infant's head. Many such examples have been found in at Greek and Phoenician sites, in various forms, such as a dog bottle dated to c.300 BCE-64 BCE from Sousse, Tunisia, and a pomegranate-shaped Greek bottle from 399 BCE-200 BCE found in Italy. The whimsical shapes and decorations are appealing to children's appetites. These bottles may also have aided the process of weaning the child from breast milk.

This object made from terracotta was most likely a child's pull toy. Approximately 11 centimeters high and 16.5 centimeters long (4.3 x 6.5 inches), it features functional wheels and a hole at the mouth for a string. The buffalo shows traces of stripes in red paint, and has markings that represent its curly forelock. The object is dated to the Archaic Age (ca. 750-500 BCE) in Magna Graecia ("Greater Greece"), the region in the southern part of the Italian Peninsula colonized by the Greeks during the 8th century. Toys were presented to Greek children on the occasion of festivals and anniversaries, and had a ritual function. Dedicated to Dionysis, they were believed to calm a child and remove evil spirits, especially toys that made noise such as rattles and whistles.

Archaeologist W. M. Flinders Petrie found this child's sock, dated to the 2nd century C.E., in a cemetery at Oxyrhyncus, a Greek monastic centre on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. The sock is made of wool yarn in a technique called "sprang," or loop knitting, in which short pieces of yarn were looped in a circular pattern using a needle. The sock features a separate section for the large toe and was likely worn with a thong sandal made of woven rushes with leather strap and sole. This example is unusual both for the skill of its Egyptian maker and the elaborate multi-colored, striped pattern. It is rare for such common objects to be preserved in the archaeological record because they were subject to wear in life and disintegration after burial. Egypt's dry climate and the care taken with burials have preserved them. The technique of loop knitting was widespread in the ancient world, and has been identified in well-preserved textile examples from Peru, Denmark, and Greece. The technique sometimes involved use of a frame, and was used to make hairnets, hoods, and fishnets as well.

The society of early China was organized into a hierarchy where elders were generally deemed superior to and expected deference from their juniors, principles that also guided the relationship between men and women, parents and children, and nobles and commoners. This biography demonstrates the way in which a child's social status can sometimes carry more weight than his or her age in determining who holds the position of superior or inferior in social interactions. In this case, the infant Xu stood for his deceased father, taking on the role as male head of the family since there was no older male to take on that responsibility. It should also be noted that Li Shan's heroic act was also meant to keep Xu's family line in tact. In early China, there is no greater horror than to leave a family with no living male representative, since only men could carry on the sacrifices to ancestors, giving them sustenance in the other world and maintaining their memory among the living.