How long could childhood last?

In recent archaeological literature, individuals estimated by anthropological methods under the age of 20 are generally interpreted as children or non-subadults. Here, we won't get into the specifics of the problems and challenges related to age estimation methods. Instead, we examine from a social perspective who may have been considered children in past communities and from what age they may have been regarded as adults or full members of the society. The burial practices and grave goods associated with children primarily reflect how members of the community related to their youngest, their loss, and the process of mourning. Therefore, the bioarchaeological analysis of children’s remains is of particular importance, as it may reveal aspects of their lifestyles, health, origins, or even familial relationships.

Bronze Age scene from the salt mine in Hallstatt (Reschreiter, Kowarik 2019, Fig. 2)

It is essential to emphasize that in prehistoric communities, children played a meaningful economic role and may have actively participated in the division of labour. Small leather hat and axe finds from the Bronze Age salt mines of Hallstatt (Austria) suggest that children around eight years of age were already involved in work, while even younger individuals could have contributed to activities such as basket weaving, pottery production, or food gathering. On the other hand, complex paleopathological studies have detected signs of pregnancy and childbirth on the pelvic bones of girls aged 14–15 from the Bronze Age, suggesting that teenagers could already become mothers in Prehistory.

Cross-cultural studies in archaeology have revealed the presence of a few universal milestones in the development of children, partly determined by biological processes (e.g., the development of the digestive system and sexual maturation). These age-related transitions are also culturally defined and influenced by the community’s subsistence strategies and values. In settled, agricultural, and occasionally urbanized communities, breastfeeding typically ended around the age of three—a transition that may have symbolized the child’s recognition as an independent person in society.

Distribution of the main clothing accessories and weapons among gender and age categories in Western Hungary between 2200 – 1500 BC (Graphics: HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Archaeology, Zsóka Varga)

The period of middle childhood, from about 7 or 8 to 12 years of age, is another key phase in children’s development. In a funerary context, the burial practices that appear in the graves of these young individuals are often similar to those of adults. Although in present-day terms middle childhood precedes sexual maturation, this similarity in death with adults can be observed in diverse archaeological periods from the Neolithic to the Early Middle Ages; it may be related not only to biological maturity but also to initiation rites into adulthood. It also suggests the possibility that children are buried not only with objects that indicate their actual status in life but also with the attributes of gender and social identity available to them; conclusively, their grave find assemblages may represent an age older than both their biological and social ages.

Nevertheless, even in societies with literacy, sources attest that girls and boys become full members of the community during adolescence. While every individual life course has its characteristics, from a broader societal perspective, we can observe that across archaeological and historical periods, the beginning of adulthood was often defined earlier than completion of biological development.

References

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Danová, K. (2012). Deti na pohrebiskách staršej doby bronzovej (The children on the Bronze age cemeteries). Sborník Národního muzea v Praze, řada A – Historie 66, 17-26.

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