Children’s play has existed across every human culture and time period. ¹ However, the history of play spaces specially designed for children is relatively short. The idea that children need separate places for their games is a modern notion, virtually unknown before the nineteenth century. Archaeologists struggle to recreate a detailed sense of children’s lives in the pre-written past. ^{2, 3} Where traces of ancient children’s history have been uncovered – such as objects presumed to be toys – there has been no corresponding evidence that children’s play was restricted to certain areas. ⁴ Visual evidence from the medieval period in Europe reinforces this sense that children played anywhere and everywhere. ⁵ Anthropological studies from non-urbanised communities and pre-twentieth-century societies record the omnipresence of children’s play. These children appropriated their own play spaces that were informal, fluid and seasonal, like the nineteenth-century New Zealand youth studied by Brian Sutton-Smith. ⁶

Item Type:	Research Book Chapter
Keywords:	history, childhood, children, play, playground
Research Division:	History, Heritage and Archaeology
Research Group:	Historical studies
Research Field:	Australian history
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology
UTAS Author:	Pascoe, C (Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy)
ID Code:	148728
Year Published:	2017
Deposited By:	History and Classics
Deposited On:	2022-02-04
Last Modified:	2022-07-28
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