Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, Anatolia, Early Bronze Age, ca. 2nd millennium BCE. A bronze toy cart complete with all four original wheels. The cart has a rectangular platform made from a thin sheet of hammered bronze, with a pair of axles secured along the underside with thin bronze strips. Perforated discoid wheels are secured onto each axle with small bends at the terminals, and are sufficiently spaced apart so as to not grind against one another. A carriage is comprised of eleven twisted bronze pins, an upper border strip, and a seat back for a small toy. Three horizontal loops project from behind the seat, allowing a child to pull the cart with a small thread or bronze handle. Though covered in copious amounts of earthen material, miniscule areas of blue-grey and green hued patina are visible. Evocative of the simplicity of Bronze Age artwork, this is a captivating and exceedingly rare example! Size: 3.875" L x 3" W x 2.625" H (9.8 cm x 7.6 cm x 6.7 cm).

This artifact is a wonderful representation of childhood innocence, discovery, and the lengths at which adults will go to inspire and please a child. Toys fashioned from terracotta, bone, or other readily-available materials would have been the norm in ancient times, so one created from bronze would have been something truly special. Other examples of bronze toy carts have been found throughout parts of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia, suggesting that the appeal and popularity of toys was quite prevalent throughout the ancient world despite the painstaking process needed to create such a plaything.

Similar examples have been found to have only two wheels, presumably to be pulled by oxen, though examples of the four-wheeled variety have been uncovered as well with camels attached to accompanying reins. The climate during this time was becoming increasingly arid, and the camel became the main draft animal in ancient Asia Minor and in western Central Asia.

What were models like this one used for? They seem to have had a votive purpose, perhaps made to be placed into tombs to replicate the conditions and possessions of life for the deceased. Imagine a cart like this piled high with exotic goods, traveling between the great civilizations of the ancient Near East, Asia Minor, northern India, and beyond.

A similar example with accompanying oxen hammered for GBP 50,000 ($69,895.50) at Christie's London Antiquities Auction (April 2 , 2014), lot 30: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ancient-art-antiquities/an-anatolian-bronze-chariot-circa-mid-2nd-millennium-5776268-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5776268&sid=e5b26082-c087-4ab8-95e0-367aeefbdc5b

For another similar example as well as a great descriptive overview of this type of toy cart, please see: Muscarella, Oscar White. Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp. 414-415, fig. 568.

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection

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#133331

Losses to portions of suspension cords on verso. Repair to part of wheel near seat back. Surface wear commensurate with age, slight bending to carriage, base, axles, and wheels, with small nicks and roughness across wheels and most surfaces, otherwise excellent. Nice earthen deposits throughout. Miniscule areas of blue-grey and light-green patina visible.