Date of Publication: 2008-06-01

The case studies, from a number of European sites, cover a time-span from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. A central theme in many of the contributions is socialisation and education as part of identity-forming processes. What was it like to be a child in Palaeolithic times? How did the Early Medieval Church approach the teaching of children? Socialisation is a theme echoed also in the two papers dealing with teaching children of today about the past, as the authors discuss how the past can be used in present identity-forming processes.

During the last c. 20 years, the archaeology of children has been enriching our understandings of the past. The papers in this volume make us realise that the study of children will have a profound impact on the study of past societies in general, challenging us to reconsider established notions of prehistoric community life. The past will never be the same after its children have entered the scene…

Dr. Liv Helga Dommasnes is professor of archaeology at the University museum of Bergen, Norway. Among her publications are the articles Women, kinship and the basis of power in the Norwegian Viking Age (1991 and 1998) and Women archaeologists in retrospect (1998, co-written with E.J. Kleppe, G. Mandt and J.-R. Naess). Her most recent book, Telling children about the past (2007), is co-edited with Dr. Nena Galanidou of the University of Crete, Greece.

Melanie Wrigglesworth, MA, is a PhD student at the University museum of Bergen, Norway. She is writing her thesis on Scandinavian Bronze Age, focussing on rock art and landscape. Among her publications are Explorations in social memory–rock art, landscape and the reuse of place (2006) and Bronze Age rock art and burials in West Norway ( 2007, http://www.ugr.es/%7Earqueol/).

‘Theory and methods are important issues, stimulating a re-thinking of the concepts of child and childhood. The relation between gender and childhood is thoroughly discussed… The reader gets many interesting examples of how, in the past, children were taught to become full members of their societies, practically and ideologically. In numerous prehistoric and protohistoric societies more than half of the inhabitants must have been younger than twelve years; that makes the children a very important and probably also influential group in the community.

I find this work of a high international standard and I am convinced that it will fill a widely held need in the academic community. It has also the potential to be a useful textbook for students of many disciplines. I recommend it warmly.’

Anne-Sofie Gräslund, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

"After reading the book, we have compelling arguments about one of the editor's main goals: to make clear the need to introduce children and childhood in the conceptions of prehistoric societies and in the grand narratives of development and change. The book is, therefore, a page-turner for all those interested on the study of children in the past and on its practical consequences in coping with some of the challenges of our contemporary global world."

-- Sandra Montón Súbías, ICREA Research Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona

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