On the Move: Archaeological Approaches to Children and Childhood

The archaeology of children and childhood has been a dynamic field of investigation since the late 1980s. Its practitioners recognize that the study of childhood is, in fact, the study of society as a whole. It is also an inherently interdisciplinary undertaking, as archaeologists are required to integrate into their analyses a diverse array of archaeological evidence - including material culture, funerary practices, human skeletal remains, built environments, and landscapes - informed - but not restricted - by the insights of a range of disciplines - including history, sociology, anthropology and ethnography. This session explores children and childhood in the context of an array of social, institutional, bodily and geographical transformations, such as migration, political change, physical growth, progression through the lifecycle, and entry into working and institutional life. It will examine the ways in which social, political and economic transformations impact on children, and how childhood experience, in turn, informs and is central to those broad processes. The session is organised into three interconnected strands which address, in turn, bioarchaeological approaches to children's identities and experiences; funerary evidence and biocultural approaches to childhood experiences; and the material culture of children's work, play and learning environments.