Experiencing Childhood in Ancient Athens

Abstract This book provides a holistic and diachronic approach to investigating the lives and social identities of children throughout the ninth to fourth centuries bce in Athens and Attica. It presents detailed analyses of mentions of children in ancient sources, scenes showing children on Geometric, black-figure, red-figure, and white-ground painted pottery, and carved marble grave markers, as well as child burials. The analyses conducted identify material cultures of children and childhood—objects used by children themselves, and objects used when caring for children—that can be used to investigate children’s identities in houses and in society across the extended life course. They provide a much-needed tool for identifying the presence of children in the archaeological record. The research presented compares the range of objects associated with children at different times and in different contexts. The evidence considered suggests childhood became an increasingly distinct stage in the ancient Greek life course throughout the period 900 to 323 bce, but it also demonstrates that children did not necessarily became more prominent in Attic society as a consequence. It suggests that children’s identities in many ways remained constant, with children always prized for the stability and continuity they represented, but appreciated for their role in perpetuating society with increasing frequency over time, and more when society was under threat. Ultimately, the volume suggests major socio-political change impacted children’s experiences of childhood and what it meant to be a child in ancient Athens primarily because of how it affected the agency of their family members, especially the women responsible for caring for children.