Learning through Play - Pottery and the Making of Toys in Prehistoric Pula

U radu su analizirane minijaturne posude iz vremena željeznog doba koje su pronađene tijekom 2007. godine u sklopu istraživanja statike zgrade Arheološkog muzeja Istre. Naglasak je stavljen na značaj konteksta nalaza ovih posudica, s obzirom da minijaturne posude predstavljaju vrlo česte nalaze na prapovijesnim nalazištima u jugoistočnoj Europi, ali najčešće nedostaje precizan kontekst nalaza, nužan za njihovu pravilnu interpretaciju. U ovom slučaju, grupa od 21 minijaturne posude pronađena je u kući, u pepelištu peći u kojoj je pripremana hrana. Detaljna analiza načina na koji su napravljene pokazala je da nije sve posudice napravila ista osoba. Sve su podjednakih veličina i vrlo jednostavnog oblika, ali uočene razlike u kvaliteti njihove izrade ukazuju da je dio njih izradila iskusnija osoba, dok je druge napravio netko manje vješt, tko se trudio oponašati prvog izrađivača i postići sličnu kvalitetu. Stoga se čini da su u pitanju dječje igračke izrađene u domaćinstvu, od kojih je one nevješte izrade napravilo dijete, igre radi, ali važan je segment tog procesa svakako bilo i učenje o svojstvima gline i izradi lončarije.The paper analyzes the small vessels from the Iron Age period, which were discovered in the course of 2007, as part of an investigation of statics in the building housing the Archaeological Museum of Istria. An emphasis was placed on the importance of the context of the discovery of these small vessels, given that miniature vessels are often found at prehistoric sites in southeastern Europe, but usually a precise context of the finds is missing, which is necessary for their proper interpretation. In this case, a group of 21 miniature vessels were found in a house, among ash in a stove that served for the preparation of food. A detailed analysis of the ways in which they were made revealed that not all of these vessels were made by one and the same person. All are of approximately equal size, featuring simple forms, but the observed differences in the quality of their manufacture indicate that some of them were produced by a more experienced person, while the others were made by someone less skilled, who was trying to imitate the experienced individual and thus achieve a similar quality. It therefore appears that they were toys made at home, those of inferior manufacture being the work of a child at play, but we should not forget that an important part of this process was certainly getting acquainted with the properties of clay and pottery making in general