Ancient Roman ivory doll with real gold jewellery.

She's the most perfect doll specimen to survive from the Roman world. She looks as if she's made of wood, but in fact she's ivory.

She's a woman with very cleverly jointed limbs, she's got a rather posh, fashionable hairdo, and on her hand she's got a little gold ring. found in a big stone coffin of a woman called Creperia Tryphaena.

To judge from the skeleton, Creperia was about 20. So the burying a doll with a 20 years old girl is rather unusual in the roman world.

Roman women were made for marriage and for breeding children. And in fact, some Roman writers tell us that just before they do get married, Roman girls would go along to a temple and they would leave their dolls in the temple.

The young girl must have belonged to a very wealthy family, all of the jewellery of a doll was made of real gold. The early death must have been a shock for the family, so leaving the doll with her was some kind of farewell ceremony.