Pleasure before Duty: Playing and Studying in the Cultic Context of Kharayeb

Abstract

Among the terracotta figurines discovered in the cult place of Kharayeb (7th-1st centuries BCE), located in the hinterland of Tyre (Lebanon), a very high percentage dates back to the Hellenistic period and presents images of children, adolescents and women. Considering these data, some scholars have supposed that a god linked to childhood and motherhood was worshipped in this sanctuary. Whoever the deity was, the huge amount and the variety of iconographies of children playing with animals (birds and dogs), balls and other objects are really surprising. Among the terracottas, there are also figurines portraying schoolchildren with writing tablets. The paper examines in depth all the data related to the figurines representing children and linked to playing activities and education in order to shed a new light on the daily life at the sanctuary and more broadly on the characteristics of Hellenistic Phoenicia.

Keywords

• childhood
• education
• Hellenistic Phoenicia
• play
• terracotta figurines