Kelsey in Focus: Installment #12

Around 2,000 years ago, Karanis was a lively village in Roman Egypt. When the community was abandoned and slowly buried by desert sand, it was sealed in time. More than a thousand years later, University of Michigan archaeologists uncovered its houses, tools, and everyday belongings—offering a vivid glimpse into how people once lived, worked, and learned in the ancient world.

While many of the town’s residents were busy with agriculture and farming, surviving tools, textiles, and documents indicate that textile production and apprenticeships were also a key part of village life. However, not all learning left a written record. Other evidence from the site suggests that some skills were learned more informally—at home, through observation, imitation, and play. 

The two miniature tools featured in this exhibit—a toy weaving comb (no. 1) and a small whorl-weighted spindle (no. 2)—provide rare insight into how children in Roman Egypt might have learned craft skills through play. These objects closely resemble full-size textile tools in the Kelsey collection used by adult weavers and spinners, like nos. 3 and 4, but were probably designed for small hands. The small weaving comb, decorated with concentric circles, mirrors the designs seen on the full-size combs. It was found in a domestic setting and likely served as a toy that helped children imitate the motions of weaving. The miniature spindle, paired with a length of spun thread, may have functioned as a lightweight tool for beginner spinners learning to control fiber and twist.

These objects represent a form of thematic play—imitative role-playing that helps children develop social and technical knowledge—a practice still familiar today in the toys we give children to “play” at cooking, building, or caregiving. In Roman Egypt, such play may have laid the groundwork for full participation in a community of textile producers.

—Heidi Hilliker, PhD Candidate, Middle East Studies