Basic principles for archaeological childhood research

Globally, archaeological childhood research is still in its infancy. The project will adopt existing initial approaches from abroad and develop them, from an interdisciplinary perspective comprising archaeology, ethnology and biological anthropology, into a new theoretical and methodical basis.

Background
The living conditions of children and youths have until now not belonged to the issues dealt with in Swiss prehistoric archaeology. This research deficit is being compensated by the unreflected application of our present-day concept of childhood to the past. This becomes obvious in archaeological images of prehistory in which children and youths – if depicted at all – only appear as «by-standers in a world of adults».

Objectives
The project aims at developing a concept for prehistoric childhood research in Switzerland. The individual objectives are:
1. the determination and limitation of the item «childhood»;
2. to reflect on our present-day concept of childhood which constricts and distorts the view of prehistoric children and youths in research;
3. to compile a compendium of the archaeological sources on children and youths in prehistory;
4. to present information which can be gained from the anthropological examination of the skeletal remains of children and youths;
5. to compile and critically review existing initial approaches to archaeological childhood research;
6. the development of three ethno-archaeological analogy models for the analysis and interpretation of archaeological and bio-anthropological data.

Significance
The project constitutes only the first stage of a larger concept. In the second stage, the research approaches developed during the project phase will be applied and optimised in case studies. In the third stage, new archaeological images to be used in museums and schools will be designed in order to prompt children and youths to enter into a discussion of their own cultural identity and to encourage them to more consciously shape the concepts of their lives.