The DOI matches its Crossref record.
The Buzz: A Simple Toy from Antiquity
Abstract
Rounded disks, commonly made from potsherds and pierced with two spaced holes, have been referred to as "buttons" in most archaeological reports, although their function remained a mystery. These perforated disks were actually simple toys that appeared by the beginning of the second millennium B. C., if not earlier, in Israel and the Indus Valley. Their use is attested sporadically to the present among the northwest coast Indians, the Japanese, Koreans, Indians and Pakistanis, Israelis, and both North and South Americans. They may prove to be a universal toy through time and space.
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In the citing paper
“The movement was generated by variations in the symmetry and tension of the strings (Van Beek 1989; and see further references for this toy in Hübner 1992:90-91, n. 2).”
From The Importance of an ‘Unimportant’ Toy: Children in the Ancient Domestic Sphere (2026) · cites this paper as Van Beek 1989
In the citing paper
“This form of moving toy, referred to as a “buzz” toy (Van Beek 1989:54), has been found at numerous archaeological sites spanning different periods and regions.”
From The Importance of an ‘Unimportant’ Toy: Children in the Ancient Domestic Sphere (2026) · cites this paper as Van Beek 1989
In the citing paper
“It typically consists of a round disc made from materials such as pottery sherds, stone, metal or even animal bones, particularly astragali and vertebrae (see White 1971:41-45;Van Beek 1989:53, 56-57;Evans 1991:168;Hübner 1992:90-91;Kilmer 1993:362;Croft 2004).”
From The Importance of an ‘Unimportant’ Toy: Children in the Ancient Domestic Sphere (2026) · cites this paper as Van Beek 1989
Citations
Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 20
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Cited by
The Importance of an ‘Unimportant’ Toy: Children in the Ancient Domestic Sphere
Avissar Lewis, R. S. (2026) · 'Atiqot · doi:10.70967/2948-040x.2521
Metadata
- Authors
- van Beek, G. W.
- Venue
- Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1989-08
- Volume
- 275
- Pages
- 53-58
- ISSN
- 0003-097X (ISSN-L)
- 2161-8062
- OpenAlex
- W2330285108
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Ancient Near East History
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History
- Keywords
- toys, pottery sherds, ancient Israel, Indus Valley, Northwest Coast Indians, material culture
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- van Beek, G. W. (1989). The Buzz: A Simple Toy from Antiquity. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. https://doi.org/10.2307/1356880
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
