September 27, 2017 · 5:55 pm
When did you last see an Acorn Snake? Do you even know what one is or how to make it? I recently realised that very few people seemed to know about this ancient toy, so here it is.
First take a good handful or two of acorn cups, one or two large acorns, and some string.
Drill a small hole in the base of each acorn cup.
Sort them by size from the smallest to largest.
Thread the cups on a length of length of string, stick a tiny cup over the knot at the small end, stick a large acorn into the biggest cup. Add a face and there you have it.
Pseudophidius quercii The Acorn Snake
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The Curious Archaeologist 
Experimental archaeology! I love it, Gordon, and I want to make one. These are the kinds of detail about history that I really love, not the politics and battles, although of course that shaped society and history, but the stuff which showed how people really lived their lives. We always think that children were treated as mini adults and made to work from an early age, which is true, but we forget that parents loved their children then as we do now, and would spend hours carving a toy for a child, or twisting hay into a doll. Lovely post.
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I would love to know the history behind this toy.
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I was shown how to make it as a child by my parents some fifty years ago. Since it is made of freely available natural materials, the only man made thing you need is string, and that could easily be obtained, even by the poorest person, then I suspect that it has been made here from the time the holes were bored with sharpened flints!
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