Abstract
Though not plentiful, it is common to find toys on military sites. While such objects may at times be attributed to the recreation of soldiers, the documentary evidence for children at military installations makes it possible to link some of these objects to children’s play. Here, several toys and other child-related artifacts recovered from a former munitions depot are used to delve into a discussion of children within these military landscapes. In doing so, an alternative conceptualization of the landscape is proposed as a means to encourage development of an archaeology of childhood in military contexts.
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Ms. Eva MacDonald for years of advice and mentorship at ASI, in general, and during the Fort York Visitor Centre project, in particular. She also deserves a great deal of credit for gathering many of publications for the current volume and organizing the “Small Finds” session at the 2014 SHA conference in Quebec City when the first version of this research was presented. The author would also like to thank Dr. Katie Hull, also of ASI, for inspiring the consideration and examination of the pedestrian, tiny, and the mundane and encouraging the author to turn the conference paper into a publishable manuscript. Additionally, all of the ASI staff who participated and contributed to the Fort York Visitor Centre project (and there are many!) deserve much gratitude for bearing the brunt of a physically and mentally draining excavation. Dr. Andrew Stewart of Strata Consulting, Dr. Carl Benn of Ryerson University, and David Spittal of the City of Toronto also deserve gratitude for their support and background history for this project along with Rachel Brooks for searching the Parks Canada Archaeological Collection. A special thanks also goes out to Dr. Barry Gaulton and Dr. Peter Whitridge of Memorial University of Newfoundland for their feedback on this paper and information on the past research that has been done on the subject. Finally, the author would like to thank the reviewers who provided great feedback and helped make this manuscript even better.
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Venovcevs, A. Playing with Fire: Children at Fort York’s Ordnance and Supply Yard. Int J Histor Archaeol 20, 705–719 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0374-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0374-1