For as long as there has been civilization, children have played with dolls. Wooden dolls with bead hair have been found in Egypt, and terracotta ones from Greece and Rome. Since dolls are traditionally made mostly from perishable materials like cloth, most do not survive past the youth of their owners. This wide-eyed effigy must once have been the prized possession of some child living in the sunset of the classical world. Many generations of children have grown up since then, yet such an object still has the power to touch our hearts.