Overview

This collection employs a multi-disciplinary approach treating ancient childhood in a holistic manner according to diachronic, regional and thematic perspectives. This multi-disciplinary approach encompasses classical studies, Egyptology, ancient history and the broad spectrum of archaeology, including iconography and bioarchaeology. With a chronological range of the Bronze Age to Byzantium and regional coverage of Egypt, Greece, and Italy this is the largest survey of childhood yet undertaken for the ancient world. Within this chronological and regional framework both the social construction of childhood and the child’s life experience are explored through the key topics of the definition of childhood, daily life, religion and ritual, death, and the information provided by bioarchaeology. No other volume to date provides such a comprehensive, systematic and cross-cultural study of childhood in the ancient Mediterranean world. In particular, its focus on the identification of society-specific definitions of childhood and the incorporation of the bioarchaeological perspective makes this work a unique and innovative study. Children in Antiquity provides an invaluable and unrivalled resource for anyone working on all aspects of the lives and deaths of children in the ancient Mediterranean world.

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9781138780866

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Reviews

I applaud the editors of this volume! They have successfully put a spotlight on the importance of studying the roles children played in the ancient world. Through this new lens, they show that innovative observations can be made concerning ancient religion, funerary practices, the family, women and gender, and the value systems of ancient societies. In addition to covering a range of Mediterranean time periods and cultures, the editors provide us with essays that investigate a single time period from different angles; the reader will thereby be able to acquire the most holistic understanding of the subject possible. Perhaps most precious of all, these essays show that studying children can offer rather moving glimpses of the lived emotions of ancient individuals. - Susan Lupack, Macquarie University, Australia Childhood in Antiquity is the most broadly based study of ancient Mediterranean children to date, employing the most diverse set of sources to understand them. It is the most chronologically and geographically diverse set of essays about children from the ancient Mediterranean, and is a very useful and broad contribution to the study of ancient children. - John H. Oakley, The College of William and Mary, USA This informative volume, immersive in range and depth, represents a stellar effort to synthesize and advance our knowledge of ancient childhood in the eastern Mediterranean. Its emphasis on variability in the experience, conceptualization and representation of childhood, its cross-cultural perspectives, and its attention to both certainties and gaps in our understanding are salutary. Lucid and engaging, all essays offer glimpses into distinct but interrelated sets of issues and will stimulate scholarly interest and further research. - Ada Cohen, Dartmouth College, USA The editors should be warmly congratulated on bringing together stimulating and innovative contributions, from so many leading and emergent scholars researching childhood in the past... Particular strengths of the volume are its explorations of children's agency, its focus upon the experiences of children and the attempts of many of its chapters to access children's perspectives, represented as they typically are through the lens of adult perceptions in archaeological, iconographic, literary and epigraphic records... A successful structure makes the volume easy and efficient to use, and excellent cross-referencing between chapters regularly flags up other relevant material. Ultimately, the volume presents a commendable alternative to works focusing on one theme, methodological approach or region, and it goes some way to addressing lacunae of research on certain periods and areas. It effectively juxtaposes evaluation of areas subjected to minimal previous investigation with those that have well-established sub-disciplines, to highlight where future work needs to be focused to improve our understanding of the many ways childhood could be perceived and experienced in antiquity... The chronological, geographical and typological range that Children in Antiquity covers surely means that it offers something to every scholar with an interest in ancient childhoods and children's experiences in the past. - The Classical Review

I applaud the editors of this volume! They have successfully put a spotlight on the importance of studying the roles children played in the ancient world. Through this new lens, they show that innovative observations can be made concerning ancient religion, funerary practices, the family, women and gender, and the value systems of ancient societies. In addition to covering a range of Mediterranean time periods and cultures, the editors provide us with essays that investigate a single time period from different angles; the reader will thereby be able to acquire the most holistic understanding of the subject possible. Perhaps most precious of all, these essays show that studying children can offer rather moving glimpses of the lived emotions of ancient individuals. -Susan Lupack, Macquarie University, Australia Childhood in Antiquity is the most broadly based study of ancient Mediterranean children to date, employing the most diverse set of sources to understand them. It is the most chronologically and geographically diverse set of essays about children from the ancient Mediterranean, and is a very useful and broad contribution to the study of ancient children. -John H. Oakley, The College of William and Mary, USA This informative volume, immersive in range and depth, represents a stellar effort to synthesize and advance our knowledge of ancient childhood in the eastern Mediterranean. Its emphasis on variability in the experience, conceptualization, and representation of childhood, its cross-cultural perspectives, and its attention to both certainties and gaps in our understanding are salutary. Lucid and engaging, all essays offer glimpses into distinct but interrelated sets of issues and will stimulate scholarly interest and further research. -Ada Cohen, Dartmouth College, USA

I applaud the editors of this volume! They have successfully put a spotlight on the importance of studying the roles children played in the ancient world. Through this new lens, they show that innovative observations can be made concerning ancient religion, funerary practices, the family, women and gender, and the value systems of ancient societies. In addition to covering a range of Mediterranean time periods and cultures, the editors provide us with essays that investigate a single time period from different angles; the reader will thereby be able to acquire the most holistic understanding of the subject possible. Perhaps most precious of all, these essays show that studying children can offer rather moving glimpses of the lived emotions of ancient individuals. - Susan Lupack, Macquarie University, Australia Childhood in Antiquity is the most broadly based study of ancient Mediterranean children to date, employing the most diverse set of sources to understand them. It is the most chronologically and geographically diverse set of essays about children from the ancient Mediterranean, and is a very useful and broad contribution to the study of ancient children. - John H. Oakley, The College of William and Mary, USA This informative volume, immersive in range and depth, represents a stellar effort to synthesize and advance our knowledge of ancient childhood in the eastern Mediterranean. Its emphasis on variability in the experience, conceptualization, and representation of childhood, its cross-cultural perspectives, and its attention to both certainties and gaps in our understanding are salutary. Lucid and engaging, all essays offer glimpses into distinct but interrelated sets of issues and will stimulate scholarly interest and further research. - Ada Cohen, Dartmouth College, USA

Author Information

"Lesley A. Beaumont is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Her many publications on children in classical antiquity include Childhood in Ancient Athens: Iconography and Social History (Routledge 2012). She co-organised the 2015 international conference on ""Children in Antiquity"" at the University of Sydney and co-curated the accompanying Nicholson Museum exhibition. Matthew Dillon is Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. He has written extensively on Greek religion and society. Nicola Harrington is an Egyptologist and Honorary Research Associate of the University of Sydney. She received her DPhil from the University of Oxford, and her doctoral thesis formed the basis of the monograph Living with the Dead: Ancestor Worship and Mortuary Cult in Ancient Egypt (2012). Her research interests include religion, childhood, and mental illness in antiquity."

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