Over the centuries, historians have told us in detail about the rise and fall of civilizations, the leaders and rulers of our world, dramatic battles and magnificent monuments, but the history of children and childhood has been strangely absent.
The invisibility of children in history and archaeology is sometimes attributed to the scarcity of historical records relating to children, and artifacts that once belonged to them. Perhaps too has been the view that children are somewhat peripheral to the most important historical subjects.
In the last few decades, however, an understanding of childhood through the ages has begun to emerge, and researchers have started to shine a spotlight on this vital aspect of human history.
The archaeological and historical record provides opportunity for the exploration of numerous aspects of childhood – an ancient, ceramic baby bottle, a child-size weapon, tiny fossilized footprints, child ‘doodles’ in medieval manuscripts, nursery rhymes, and mythological tales – they all have stories to tell about the children of our past.
Here, we examine seven amazing glimpses into what life was really like for children throughout history.
Ancient Egyptian ‘Boy Scouts’
Never before has ancient childhood been researched so systematically than in the mass of 7,500 ancient Egyptian papyrus documents that originate from Oxyrhynchos in Egypt, a large town of more than 25,000 inhabitants, which flourished around 500 BC. The research revealed that in Roman Egypt, 14-year-old boys were enrolled in a youth organization in order to learn to be good citizens, similar to modern-day Boy Scouts.