Ages and abilities : the stages of childhood and their social recognition in prehistoric Europe and beyond

Ages and Abilities explores social responses to childhood stages from the late Neolithic to Classical Antiquity in Central Europe and the Mediterranean and includes cross-cultural comparison to expand the theoretical and methodological framework. By comparing osteological and archaeological evidence, as well as integrating images and texts, authors consider whether childhood age classes are archaeologically recognizable, at which approximated ages transitions took place, whether they are gradual or abrupt and different for girls and boys. Age transitions may be marked by celebrations and rituals; cultural accentuation of developmental stages may be reflected by inclusion or exclusion at cemeteries, by objects associated with childhood such as feeding vessels and toys, and gradual access to adult material culture. Access to tools, weapons and status symbols, as well as children’s agency, rank and social status, are recurrent themes. The volume accounts for the variability in how a range of chronologically and geographically diverse communities perceived children and childhood, and at the same time, discloses universal trends in child development in the (pre-)historic past. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction. Children’s developmental stages from biological, anthropological and archaeological perspectives – Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and Doris Pany-Kucera Chapter 2: Weaponry and children: technological and social trajectories – Kathryn A. Kamp and John C. Whittaker Chapter 3: How and when life is considered to have begun in past societies: child burials at the cemetery of Durankulak, north-east Bulgaria - Ekaterina Alexandrova Stamboliyska-Petrova Chapter 4: Inherited rank and own abilities: children in Corded Ware and Bell Beaker communities of the Traisen Valley, Lower Austria – Daniela Kern Chapter 5: The little ones in the Early Bronze Age: foetuses, newborns and infants in the Únětice Culture in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia – Lucie Vélová, Katarína Hladíková and Klaudia Daňová Chapter 6: Ages and life stages at the Middle Bronze Age cemetery of Pitten, Lower Austria – Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, with contributions by Patrik Galeta, Walther Parson, Doris Pany-Kucera, Michaela Spannagl-Steiner and Christina Strobl Chapter 7: Children in the territory of Western Hungary during the Early and Middle Bronze Age: the recognition of developmental stages in the past – Eszter Melis, Tamás Hajdu, Kitti Köhler and Viktória Kiss Chapter 8: Childhood in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in the southern Carpathian Basin – Daria Ložnjak Dizdar and Petra Rajić Šikanjić Chapter 9: Mycenaean childhood: Linear B script set against archaeological artefacts – Beata Kaczmarek Chapter 10: Dumu.gaba, ṣiḫru e Guruš/sal.Tur.tur – Nadia Pezzulla Chapter 11: Identifying social and cultural thresholds in sub-adult burials – Francesca Fulminante Chapter 12: Child personhood in Iron Age Veneto: insights from micro-scale contextual analysis and burial taphonomy – Elisa Perego, Veronica Tamorri and Rafael Scopacasa Chapter 13: The recognition of children and child-specific burial practices at the necropolis of Spina, Italy – Anna Serra Chapter 14: Greek children and their wheel carts on Attic Vases – Hanna Ammar Chapter 15: Teeny-tiny little coffins: from the embrace of the mother to the embrace of Hades in ancient Greek society – Alexandra Syrogianni Chapter 16: Pueri nascentes: rituals, birth and social recognition in Ancient Rome – Irene Mañas Romero and José Nicolás Saiz López Ages and Abilities explores social responses to childhood stages from the late Neolithic to Classical Antiquity in Central Europe and the Mediterranean and includes cross-cultural comparison to expand the theoretical and methodological framework. By comparing osteological and archaeological evidence, as well as integrating images and texts, authors consider whether childhood age classes are archaeologically recognizable, at which approximated ages transitions took place, whether they are gradual or abrupt and different for girls and boys. Age transitions may be marked by celebrations and rituals; cultural accentuation of developmental stages may be reflected by inclusion or exclusion at cemeteries, by objects associated with childhood such as feeding vessels and toys, and gradual access to adult material culture. Access to tools, weapons and status symbols, as well as children’s agency, rank and social status, are recurrent themes. The volume accounts for the variability in how a range of chronologically and geographically diverse communities perceived children and childhood, and at the same time, discloses universal trends in child development in the (pre-)historic past. Cover 1 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents Page 5 List of contributors 7 Childhood in the Past Monograph Series 15 Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and Doris Pany-Kucera 17 Introduction 19 Kathryn A. Kamp and John C. Whittaker 26 Weaponry and Children 27 Figure 2.1. Age comparisons of atlatl scores. These two graphs compare children who began competing at atlatl throwing events very early with those who began in adolescence. Each line represents a single contestant. The thickness of the line varies with 29 Table 2.1. A categorization of the Human Relations Area Files cultures used in the comparative study. The two cultures using atlatls and darts are included with those using spears. Some cultures use both spears and bows and arrows. 30 Table 2.2. Children’s war games. 33 Table 2.3. Children’s hunting play. 34 Ekaterina Alexandrova Stamboliyska-Petrova 42 How and when life is considered to have begun in past societies 43 Table 3.1. The number of adults/cenotaphs and sub-adults in graves in the chronological subgroups of the cemetery of Durankulak. 46 Figure 3.1. The proportion of adults/cenotaphs and sub-adults in graves in the Late Chalcolithic of the cemetery of Durankulak 47 Daniela Kern 50 Figure 4.1. Gemeinlebarn, Grave 766 of a 25-35-year-old man (1) with a 18-24-months old child (2), stone axe (3), silex blade (4), animal bones (5) (drawing: A. Gattringer and M. Imam © Archiv des Bundesdenkmalamts Mauerbach). 51 Inherited rank and own abilities 51 Figure 4.2. Franzhausen IV, Grave 4335, disturbed grave of a 3-5-year-old girl with a doll and whistle in her arms (© Archiv des Bundesdenkmalamts Mauerbach). 54 Figure 4.3. Franzhausen II, Grave 389 of an under seven-year-old boy with shaft hole axe (1), flat axe (2), silex blade (3) and bowl (4) (drawing: A. Gattringer and M. Imam © Archiv des Bundesdenkmalamts Mauerbach). 55 Table 4.1. Female children’s graves, according to the position and orientation of the skeleton (n=19). Skeletal age determination: M. Berner, K. Wiltschke-Schrotta (N&N: after C. and J.-W. Neugebauer). *Bell Beaker graves, object? = not certain whether ob 58 Table 4.2. Male children’s graves, according to the position and orientation of the skeleton (n=16). Skeletal age determination: M. Berner, K. Wiltschke-Schrotta (N&N: after C. and J.-W. Neugebauer), *Bell Beaker graves, object? = uncertain whether object 59 Table 4.3. Children’s graves of undetermined gendered burial position (n=10). Skeletal age determination: M. Berner, K. Wiltschke-Schrotta. *Bell Beaker graves, object? = not certain whether object belongs to funerary assemblage. 60 Lucie Vélová, Katarína Hladíková and Klaudia Daňová 66 Figure 5.1. Distribution of foetuses, newborns and infants in cemeteries in Bohemia: 1 – Únětice; 2 – Kamýk (incl. two pithoi); 3 – Holubice; 4 – Vepřek (incl. two pithoi); 5 – Praha-Bubeneč; 6 – Praha-Čimice; 7 – Praha-Čakovice; 8 – Vliněves; in Moravia: 67 The little ones in the Early Bronze Age 67 Figure 5.2. Distribution of foetuses, newborns and infants in settlements in Bohemia: 1 – Praha-Čimice; 2 – Praha-Michle (incl. pithos); 3 – Třeboradice; 4 – Vliněves; 5 – Slánská hora (incl. pithos); 6 – Březno; in Moravia: 7 – Znojmo; 8 – Branišovice; 9 68 Figure 5.3. Foetus in utero, Grave 61 from Vyškov-Markova cihelna (Fojtík and Prokeš 2004, 230, Fig. 4). 69 Figure 5.4. Foetus in utero, multiple burial from settlement Pit 596 from Znojmo (drawing: D. Humpola). 70 Figure 5.5. Multiple burial in settlement Pit 32 from Nitra-Selenec (infant in circle, Gabulová et al. 2013, str. 70, obr. 19/1). 75 Figure 5.6. a. distribution of the youngest children in cemeteries; b: distribution of the youngest children at settlements; c: distribution of the youngest children in studied areas; d: total number of the youngest children from cemeteries and settlement 76 Katharina Rebay-Salisbury et al. 85 Ages and life stages at the Middle Bronze Age cemetery of Pitten 85 Katharina Rebay-Salisbury et al. 87 Ages and life stages at the Middle Bronze Age cemetery of Pitten 87 Figure 6.1. Reconstructed absolute numbers of children that died during each year of life at Pitten. 88 Figure 6.2. Reconstructed absolute numbers of inhumed (grey) and cremated (black) individuals assigned to each year of death between 0 and 20. 89 Figure 6.3. Percentage of cremated individuals assigned to each year of death between 0 and 20. 90 Figure 6.4. Burial mound 153, the surrounding ditch and the two infant burials found in it (153a1: inhumation, cup: 4.8 cm high; 153a2: cremation, 63 g, ceramic urn: 17 cm high, bracelet: 3.8 x 4.5 cm diameter), after Hampl, Kerchler and Benkovsky-Pivovar 91 Fig. 6.5. Ceramic spoon from Grave 64 at Pitten, after Hampl, Kerchler and Benkovsky-Pivovarová 1985, pl. 208. 92 Figure 6.6. Grave 57, of a 12-14-year old woman, after Hampl, Kerchler and Benkovsky-Pivovarová 1985, pl. 35. 93 Figure 6.7. Median (black) and average (grey) social index values per year of age at death. 94 Table 6.1. Double and multiple burials with sub-adults at Pitten. 95 Eszter Melis, Tamás Hajdu, Kitti Köhler and Viktória Kiss 100 Figure 7.1. Location of the investigated sites and Middle Bronze Age cultures in the territory of Hungary (after Fischl et al. 2013). 101 Children in the territory of Western Hungary 101 Table 7.1. Summary of the analysed burials (normative treatment in bold). 102 Figure 7.2. Proportion of buried children under eight years and children/adolescents from eight to twenty years in the analysed cultures. 105 Table 7.2. Multiple and consecutive burials of the Gáta-Wieselburg culture in Hungary (for Austria, see Rebay-Salisbury 2018, Tab. 1-6). 108 Figure 7.3. Age distribution of the co-buried individuals under study. 109 Figure 7.4. Distribution of the grave-good types among the age categories, a: Gáta-Wieselburg culture, b: Kisapostag/Transdanubian Encrusted Pottery culture, c: late Nagyrév/ Vatya culture. 111 Figure 7.5. Burial of a child with dagger at Ménfőcsanak (photo: Ferenc Halász). 112 Figure 7.6. Drinking horns from Bonyhád in the burials BBQ75 and BBQ240 (after Szabó 2012). 114 Daria Ložnjak Dizdar and Petra Rajić Šikanjić 123 Figure 8.1. Late Bronze and Early Iron Age cemeteries in the southern Carpathian Basin mentioned in this chapter (1 Poljana Križevačka, 2 Slatina, 3 Belišće, 4 Batina, 5 Sotin, 6 Dolina, Fig.: Daria Ložnjak Dizdar). 124 Childhood in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age 125 Figure 8.2. Sotin, Grave 1. Urns in situ (Photo: Daria Ložnjak Dizdar). 128 Figure 8.3. Urns in double and multiple graves (1-2: Slatina, Grave 15, 3-4: Sotin, Grave 1. Drawings: Martina Rončević, Miljenka Galić). 129 Figure 8.4. Small vessels in children’s graves (1-2: Batina, Grave 20; 3: Sotin, Grave 50. Drawings: Dalibor Radman, Krešimir Rončević). 132 Beata Kaczmarek 138 Mycenaean childhood 139 Figure 9.1. Linear B words in connection with children. 141 Figure 9.2. Percentage of Linear B tablets with children and adolescents mentioned. 142 Figure 9.3. Children’s burials at Thebes and Mycenae. 144 Figure 9.4. Children’s burials at Pylos and Knossos. 144 Nadia Pezzulla 149 Dumu.gaba, ṣiḫru e Guruš/sal.Tur.tur 151 Table 10.1. Childhood Lexicon (terms during pregnancy, terms for new-borns, terms for children). 154 Table 10.2. Young workers’ age classes. 155 Figure 10.1. Old-Babylonian plaque of a sitting woman breastfeeding her infant, Southern Mesopotamia, Iraq, c. 2003-1595 BCE. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Photo: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg) [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]. 160 Table 10.3. Summary of the ancient age groups based on texts and iconography. 161 Francesca Fulminante 167 Figure 11.1. Lavinium, Oriental Santuary: girl offering a dove, mid- 5th century BC (reproduced with kind permission of the Museo di Pratica di Mare/Lavinium, Rome, Italy). 168 Figure 11.2. Central Italy with selected Pre-Roman sites (Farney and Bradley 2017, map 2, reproduced with kind permission). 169 Identifying social and cultural thresholds in sub-adult burials 169 Table 11.1. Social differentiation as reflected in burial customs in southern Etruria and Latium vetus from the Final Bronze Age to the Archaic Period (1050-500 BC). 171 Table 11.5. Distribution of pottery types in Latin sub-adult burials (female). 176 Table 11.2. Distribution of role indicators in Latin sub-adult burials (male and undetermined burials). 173 Table 11.3. Distribution of role indicators in Latin sub-adult burials (female burials). 174 Table 11.4. Distribution of pottery types in Latin sub-adult burials (male and undetermined). 175 Figure 11.3. Lavinium, suggrundaria 8th -7th century BC (from Colonna 1988, pl. XVII, based on excavations by Maria Fenelli; reproduced with kind permission of the author). 181 Elisa Perego, Veronica Tamorri and Rafael Scopacasa 190 Figure 12.1. Map of Italy with the main sites mentioned in the chapter (by Elisa Perego and Lars Heinze, base map courtesy of the Ancient World Mapping Center). 191 Child personhood in Iron Age Veneto 191 Table 12.1. Age estimation of human osteological samples (modified after Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994). We also use the category of neonates to indicate individuals of an age range between birth and six months. 193 Child personhood in Iron Age Veneto 193 Anna Serra 209 Figure 13.1. Map of the Etruscan Po Valley. Detail: geomorphological map of Spina during the Etruscan period (edited by Anna Serra, from the original in Berti et al. 2007, pl. 7). 211 The recognition of children and child-specific burial practices 211 Figure 13.2. Photo of Grave 506 during the excavations (photographer unknown; Guzzo 1993, 221). 215 Figure 13.3. Red-figured Attic chous (1764) from Tomb 1007 of Valle Trebba, end of the 5th century BC (© National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara, used with permission). 216 Figure 13.4. Red-figured Attic chous (1765) from Tomb 1007 of Valle Trebba, end of the 5th century BC (© National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara, used with permission). 216 Figure 13.5. Amber and bone necklace (27977) from Tomb 1185 of Valle Trebba, second half of the 4th century BC (© National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara, used with permission). 218 Greek children and their wheel carts on Attic Vases 225 Hanna Ammar 225 Figure 14.1. Attic red-figured chous, Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 1267 © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, photo Hanna Ammar. 226 Figure 14.2. Attic red-figured chous, London, British Museum, 1910,0615.5 (© Trustees of the British Museum). 228 Figure 14.3. Attic red-figured chous, Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 11738 (© Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, photo Hanna Ammar). 231 Figure 14.4. Attic red-figured chous, London, British Museum, E536 (© Trustees of the British Museum). 233 Alexandra Syrogianni 237 Teeny-tiny little coffins 239 Figure 15.1. Grave stele of Irene from Byzantium, MP 3582 (375-350 BC). The seated figure is the commemorated dead, the servant standing in front of her is holding the infant (© Ministry of Culture and Sports/Archaeological Museum of Piraeus). 239 Figure 15.2. Grave stele, MP 5812 (c. 350-330 BC). The seated figure is the commemorated dead. Gathered around her are her husband, her mother and the servant holding the infant with its head covered with a small cap (© Ministry of Culture and Sports/Arch 240 Figure 15.3. Swaddled infant, MP 5383 (end of 4th-3rd century BC). Find from the Sanctuary of Artemis Mounichia, near ancient Piraeus (© Ministry of Culture and Sports/Archaeological Museum of Piraeus). 241 Figure 15.4. Choes, MP 3348, MP 3349, MP 3350 (c. 5th century BC). Red-figured jugs, with the depiction of small children wearing protective amulets (© Ministry of Culture and Sports/Archaeological Museum of Piraeus). 246 Irene Mañas Romero and José Nicolás Saiz López 251 Figure 16.1. Pregnant woman. Terracotta figurine discovered in Caura (Coria del Río, Seville, Spain) (Oria Segura and Escacena Carrasco 2016: 101, fig. 2, © CC BY-NC 4.0). 253 Pueri nascentes: rituals, birth and social recognition 253 Figure 16.2. Bathing scene. Marble sarcophagus, 2nd century AD. Archaeological Museum of Agrigento, Sicily, Italy (Photo: Regional Archaeological Museum of Agrigento © CC BY-NC 4.0, Wikimedia Commons). 256 Figure 16.3. Swaddled child. Funerary stele of Iulia Saturnina (CIL II, 497), 1st century AD. National Museum of Roman Art, Merida, Spain (Photo © Archivo Fotográfico Museo Nacional de Arte Romano – Mérida). 258 Figure 16.4. Mother breastfeeding a baby in the presence of the father. Sarcophagus of Marcus Cornelius Statius, c. 150 BC (Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen, The Louvre Museum, Paris, France © CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons). 259 Back cover 265 Childhood in the Past Monograph Series 9,childhood stages,late Neolithic,Classical Antiquity,Central Europe,Mediterranean,childhood rituals,prehistoric childhood develompment