ABSTRACTS
‘CHILDHOOD IN THE PAST – RECENT RESEARCH’
Socialization, Learning and Play in the Past
Becoming people: transitions from childhood to adulthood in liminal spaces
of courtyard sites along the Norwegian coast
Niall John Oma Armstrong, Museum of Archaeology, Stavanger, Norway
This paper wishes to discuss the transformation from childhood to manhood. It suggests that
the courtyard sites of Iron Age Norway were primarily arenas for this transformation process.
Anthropological studies show how rites de passage can be central, defining elements for both
individuals and society as a whole. These practices have culturally specific spaces and periods
assigned to them. Such processes, because of their liminal, even marginal character, can be
difficult to engage with archaeologically. Because of our culturally specific situatedness, these
ideas of marginality are seldom used as explanations for important archaeological structures.
Creating Identities – Ancient Greek Sports Competitions as a Means of
Socializing Children and Youths
Annika Backe-Dahmen, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
This paper is based on the assumption that socialization of ancient children was achieved to a
great deal through rituals and certain institutions, private or public. One such institution in
Ancient Greece was sports competitions, the most famous of them the games at Olympia.
Here, every four years from 776 B. C. on, Greeks came together to compete in various
disciplines. The age classes not only involved men, but also children and youths (paídes) as
well. Being victorious not only brought various prizes but also enormous fame for the
individual as well as for his hometown (pólis). Statues and winner songs testify that paídes
were not regarded as of secondary importance – rather, their victories increased their home’s
reputation in the same way the victory of any adult participant did. Hence, sports competitions
functioned as a means of socializing (male) children from very early on and imprinted on
them the main feature in Greek self-conception: always to strive for the best and to excel all
others.
Do Present Children meet Children from the Past?
Elisabeth Beausang, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History,
Gothenburg University, Sweden
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This contribution will analyse and discuss Swedish contemporary children’s encounter with
prehistoric children in the current elementary schooling system regarding policies, curricula
and teaching material and performed didactics in relation to Swedish scholarly contributions
concerning different aspects of past childhood.
Children's amusement in 13th - 17th centuries as reflected in the
archaeological data of Lithuania
Povilas Blazevicius, Institute of History and Archaeology of the Baltic Sea Region,
University of Klaipedia, Lithuania
The work investigates children’s toys dated to 13th-17th centuries, which were found during
archaeological excavations in Lithuania. The aim of the work is to define the chronological
and geographical spread of such toys by comparing the material found in Lithuania to
European archaeological data and using certain information from the visual arts and written
sources. A systematic overview of the artefacts seeks to restore children’s amusement in the
Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in Lithuania. Toys serve as a reflection of the daily
life of adults and offer an opportunity to assess the importance of toys and games on the
child’s development as a tool of recreation and knowledge.
No playing allowed: representations of children in ancient Greece
Olympia Bobou, Brasenose College, Oxford, UK
Representations of children in statues are one of the innovations of 4th c. Greek art. These
were mostly placed in sanctuaries of healing or protecting deities, and they are characterised
by a uniformity of dress and posture that belies their identification as portraits of individual
children. Apart from being only tokens of piety and gratitude, they offered models of
behaviour that acted as paradigms for the actual children visiting sanctuaries. The decorum
and uniformity displayed also served as an instructive model, showing the decorum expected
of children-viewers. This function can be supported by literary sources (e.g. Plato, Leg.
VII.794A).
The role of children in the ritual life of the Incas
Dr. Constanza Ceruti, Insitute of High Mountain Research at the Catholic University of
Salta, Argentina
In this presentation we will analyze, from the perspective of Archaeology and Ethnohistory,
the participation of children in the ritual life of the Inca Empire, which ruled in the highlands
of Southamerica five centuries ago. The accounts written by the early Spanish conquistadors
and missionaries, which describe the puberty rituals and sacrificial ceremonies of the Incas,
can be compared with the bio-archaeological evidence of frozen infant mummies from the
Inca mountaintop shrines in the Andes, which provide first-hand data to support the historical
documents revealing the important role that children fulfilled in the religious life of this
ancient empire.
How abortive artefacts can be informative archaeological research objects
Sigrid Alræk Dugstad, Museum of Archaeology, Stavanger, Norway
Early Mesolithic sites in Norway seldom produce material remains other than lithics. Stone
tools and debris from tool production are vital for interpreting social interactions during this
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period. Teaching skills and passing on knowledge were very important, and we can assume
that much of the transfer of knowledge happened relatively early in life, either through play or
more structured apprenticement. Technological processes, tools, waste and retouched pieces
as well as their context and associations can give opportunities to get closer to individuals,
e.g. children. These are central issues of this talk, which is based on a case study of Early
Mesolithic (10000-9500 BP) sites in the coastal area of southwestern Norway.
Children of the Neolitic revolution
Lotte Eigeland, Department of Ancient Monuments, Museum of Cultural History,
University of Oslo, Norway
During the last decades new methods have contributed to our knowledge of skill and
craftsmanship in prehistoric tool production. Through experimental archaeology and the
replication of common Stone Age tools, researchers have been able to recognise a difference
in skill between individual flintknappers. Limited skill is often attributed to beginners or
children with little or no knowledge of tool production. In my currant research I am applying
these new methods to archaeological lithic material from Eastern Norway dated to the
Neolithic transition. Traces after children have rarely been looked for in this region. Can
children be discovered in this material? What role, in technological terms, can be designated
to children during the Neolithic transition? Preliminary results from this ongoing Phd-project
will be presented.
‘Little angels at work’:
Children and labour in Late Bronze Age Aegean
(ca. 1700-1050BC)
Chrysanthi Gallou, The Centre for Spartan & Peloponnesian Studies, Department of
Archaeology, University of Nottingham, UK
Children have formed an important constituent of workforce in the agricultural and pastoral
communities of ancient Greece. The contribution of child labour, though, in LBA society has
hitherto attracted limited attention. By reviewing the available archaeological evidence, the
aims of this paper are to a) determine the age at which children might have been expected to
contribute to labour force, b) investigate types of child labour and whether these were classand/or gender-dependent, c) examine issues of gender/age differentiation and task autonomy,
and d) the relation of child labour to the socio-economic and political conditions of the
Mycenaean society.
Where have all the children gone?
- a topic for discussion
Lise Harvig, Copenhagen City Museum and lab. of Biological Anthropology,
Copenhagen University, Denmark
Often subadult skeletons recovered archeologically are rather well preserved and perhaps we
can we speak of a “taphonomic paradox”: If we only find the well preserved subadults – all
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the subadults we find are well preserved! It is very likely that child mortality was higher in
both history and prehistory than what is evident from our demographic models. Both adult
and subadult skeletons are lost or overlooked on excavations, but probably not in equal
numbers. But what are the prospects? Is it merely a question of priorities in field archaeology?
– Or should we implement multidisciplinary archaeology in the field?
A fine day in the life of a child
Anna Kjellström, Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University &
Stig Welinder, Mid Sweden University, Sweden
At an archaeological excavation in Tidaholm, West Sweden, of a jetty used for washing
clothes a chewing-gum was recovered. Its date is post-1950. The age of the chewing child is
suggested, and a happy – or possibly unhappy – moment in the life of the child is
reconstructed. In the process ethics and experiments are applied.
The Beloved Children at St. Clemens
Jane Jark Jensen, Copenhagen City Museum, Denmark
Copenhagen City museum is performing an archaeological excavation of a medieval
churchyard that belonged to the eldest known church of Copenhagen, dedicated to St.
Clemens. The churchyard has been in use from at least the beginning of the 12 th century until
the church was demolished at the time of Reformation in the middle of the 16th century.
There are a surprisingly large number of children buried in the churchyard, and especially
these child burials are unique. They show us, that most of these children were handled with
great care.
On Sami Childhood in the Past
Else Johansen Kleppe, Cultural History Collections, Bergen Museum, University of
Bergen, Norway
Based on written sources and archaeological evidence from the Lule Sami area
Several Sami groups are known historically in the Lule Sami area, i.e. the traditional Lule
Lappmark in Sweden and Nordland in Norway. Lule Sami culture is associated with reindeerherding, migrating Sami. Other Sami groups living there are Coast Sami, cultivating Sami and
Sami with river and forest adaptations. The groups have different material expressions and
children's belonging is expressed materially. Transition from childhood to grown-up was
around the age of 12. Girls and boys are brought up together by close kin, and specific skills
including insight into ritual acts are passed on from females to girls and males to boys,
respectively.
Ancient Spartan 'Agoge' and socialisation
Pantelis Konstantinakos & Metaxia Papapostolou, Department of Sports Organisation
and Management, University of Peloponnes, Greece
The fascinating and complex Spartan tradition possesses central place in the western political
thought while the effect exercised by the images and the fables of Sparta has remained
admirably diachronic since antiquity. Amongst the various Spartan institutions admiration
was caused by the eminent Spartan 'agoge' (education), which was entirely under the
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guardianship and the control of the State. It has been established that education was the force
behind the Spartan mirage.By providing an overview of the ancient Spartan educational
system and by discussing the evidence for the participation of boys and girls in secular and
religious festivals, the aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the rites of passage in the
process of socialisation of Spartan children.
Socialising the Enemy Child
Heather Montgomery, The Open University, UK
This paper will look at representations of the ‘enemy child’ in the silent fund- raising films of
Save the Children Fund, particularly those from the Russian famine of 1921. It will look at the
ways in which the charity re-socialised the child from being a potential solider to an innocent
victim, and how it called for a global responsibility towards all children. These films invoked
the notion of the global child which had claims on international community, and attempted to
position the socialisation of children as an international concern.
Children’s burial grounds in Ireland – A review of
the osteoarchaeological findings
Eileen M. Murphy School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology,
Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Cilliní, or children’s burial grounds, were the designated resting places for individuals
considered unsuitable by the Catholic Church for burial within consecrated ground prior to the
Second Vatican Council. The burial grounds appear to have proliferated in the aftermath of
the Counter-Reformation in Ireland. The majority of individuals buried within cilliní were
unbaptised babies. As such, the excavation of such sites (invariably in advance of
development) affords the opportunity to gain substantial insights concerning past infant
mortality and child health. The paper will provide a synthesis of the osteoarchaeological and
palaeopathological findings to have been derived from the study of Irish cillín populations to
date.
Behind fragments and shards – children in medieval Bergen
Sigrid Samset Mygland, Department for Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and
Religion, University of Bergen, Norway
The paper presents results from my master study “Children in medieval Bergen. An
archaeological analysis of child-related artefact”, and concerns children and how child-related
objects from archaeological contexts can illuminate children’s presence and everyday life in a
medieval town. By analysing physical remains reflecting children’s games, behaviour and
clothing it has been possible to provide new information and shed new light on the everyday
life of children in medieval Bergen, and thereby indirectly also the demographic and social
organisation. The paper also relates to the wider discussion of how childhood was perceived
in the Middle Ages and how children at different stages were treated.
The role of public life and its physical setting in the socialization of children
Beryl Rawson, Classics Program, Australian National University, Australia
The focus here will be on urbanized Roman society of approximately the last century BCE
and the first two and a half centuries CE: public life in its various forms – art, architecture,
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monuments, rituals, festivals, and the physical setting for these. How did children learn to be
Romans? Just as regional differences have to be taken into account in Italy and the provinces,
local factors play a role in the sprawling, populous city of Rome with its clearly demarcated
neighbourhoods. The intensely visual and aural character of the city played its part.
Growing up on a Bronze Age tell
Joanna Sofaer, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK
This paper focuses on the phenomenology of learning and ‘techniques of the body’ at the
Bronze Age tell of Szazhalombatta, Hungary. From the Early to the Middle Bronze Age,
changes in pottery forms led to shifts in the use of space in houses on the tell. These
developments, in turn, imply changing developmental experiences both for people living in
the houses, and for the potters who made.
Kidknapping Revisited– Child’s Play and Apprenticeship
in European Prehistory
Farina Sternke, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, UK
During the last decade, the study of the individual and the transfer of knowledge have become
central concerns in prehistoric archaeology. However, the child as a possible apprentice is
often absent, silent or passive in prehistoric hunter-gatherer narratives despite persistent
efforts of (predominantly female) archaeologists to focus on the study of childhood. Research,
which directly converges on children’s products and examines their role in the active
transmission of knowledge and their place within social and technological re/production, is
still exceptional. However, the gradual nature of the flintknapping skill acquisition and the
durability of stone offer the archaeologist a unique possibility to reconstruct the individual’s
learning process on a prehistoric site. This paper discusses the results of recent lithic analysis
of selected prehistoric assemblages and previous lithic experimentation with children and
adult novices in an effort to explore the modalities and possible organisation of knowledge
transfer and the role of children in the re/production of material culture in prehistoric
European societies.
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