Introduction

Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in research on infancy and childhood in the social sciences with significant developments in method and theory on the topic in anthropology, sociology and history (Alanen 2014; Baxter 2005; Gottlieb 2000; Heywood 2017; James and Prout 2015; Lewis 2006, 2017; Lillehammer 2015; Nowell and Kurki 2020). Anthropological and historical approaches have moved from simply seeking to find and include infants and children in interpretations, towards more sophisticated understandings of the multivocality of infancy and childhood, their roles, and their relationships with caregivers, family and society (Baxter 2005; Gowland and Halcrow 2020; Heywood 2017; Kendall and Kendall 2021; Lillehammer 2015). Within these disciplines, there has been an adoption of a sophisticated appreciation of social life course theory, agency and resilience, and the archaeology of care, emotion and grief (Gowland 2015; Inglis and Halcrow 2018; Lewis 2006, 2017). In anthropological science there has been significant development of methodological advances in chemical and molecular analysis of food remains, sampling techniques for infant feeding and weaning, and a development of theoretical sophistication to understand their biological and social fragility from a lifecourse, the maternal–infant nexus and developmental origins of health and disease perspective (Beaumont and Montgomery 2015; Dunne et al. 2019; Gowland 2015; Gowland and Halcrow 2020; Halcrow et al. 2017).

The collection of papers in this special issue showcase research on infancy and childhood with sophisticated theoretical and methodological approaches to this topic. These papers are particularly fitting for Childhood in the Past: An International Journal, an interdisciplinary forum for the publication of research on all aspects of childhood in the past, which transcends conventional disciplinary boundaries and time periods. This issue represents a significant contribution to understanding the role of children and childhood during the transition to urbanization in Europe through the lens of multiple approaches, including bioarchaeological, archaeological, cognitive developmental (palaeoanthropological), sociological and historical research on infants and children, using a variety of new analytical techniques. This issue is organized chronologically from the consideration of cognitive development during prehistory to the nineteenth-century urban environment.

The first paper by Coward and Howard-Jones explores the possible role of early infant cognitive development in technological innovation during prehistory. They explore why infancy is a special time in terms of the potential for the environment to impact cognitive development and compare the experiences of infants within small-scale foraging and small-scale agrarian societies. Coward and Howard-Jones argue that a small-scale agrarian settlement environment ‘offers a range of paths by which infant development might be impacted with consequences for long-term learning and instruction about technology.’ Agrarian home environments have a more diverse range of technologies, with frequent opportunities for learning about their manufacture and use during a foundational developmental stage. They speculate further that changes in the organization of childcare associated with an agrarian lifestyle may have led to more behavioral regulation, contributing to a cognitive platform more suited to learning through instruction. Coward and Howard-Jones’ work assessing early cognitive development in infants as the groundwork for future learning is important for highlighting the life course perspective in learning, development and innovation. Further interrogation of the relationship between childcare, learning and technological development, and the so-called neolithic agricultural transition, has the potential to extend this model.

The second paper in this issue by Rebay-Salisbury et al. presents research on infant feeding in Central Europe during the time period leading up to the beginnings of urbanization. Extending their ground-breaking research presented in Nature (Dunne et al. 2019) on the first evidence for bottle feeding of animal milk, this paper presents further lipid and isotope analyses from the contents of 24 small ceramic vessels with spouts in late Bronze and early Iron Age Europe. These feeding vessels that were found mostly in the graves of infants and women, showed the presence of ruminant milk associated with child burials, whereas other vessels were used to process ruminant and non-ruminant adipose fats. Importantly, Rebay-Salisbury et al. consider these findings on infant feeding in the context of possible childcare practices during this time where there is evidence for increasing population sizes, settlement nucleation and mobility. Further interrogation of possible changing social and cultural ideas around animal milk and infant feeding and the health effects of the introduction of animal milk for feeding infants is needed (Halcrow 2019).

Next, Sperduti et al. explore funerary archaeology and socio-demographic dynamics in Pontecagnano, an Etruscan-Samnite and Roman site near Salerno, Campania, between the ninth and fifth centuries BCE. The paper integrates an analysis of archaeological, biological anthropological, and archaeozoological data from more than 150 burials derived from three chronologically and spatially distinct funerary contexts (Colucci, De Chiara, and Baldi) at the site. Specifically, the authors investigated the inclusion or exclusion of specific age groups from the formal burial grounds, and if there was any relationship between the age at death and post-mortem treatment of the body. They found a diachronic change in the representation of children in three necropoli ranging from infant under-representation at Colucci and De Chiara to over-representation at Baldi. Sperduti and colleagues’ analysis shows an introduction of a specific age-related burial type (enchytrismòs) over time which they state ‘strengthens the interpretation of an evolution of the social meaning of neonates and their untimely death.’ In the later phases (De Chiara and Baldi), the mortuary analysis is argued to indicate the privileged funerary consecration of subadults. This treatment of subadults corroborates with evidence for the development of the social elite during urban development, with burial mediated by wealth and lineage, rather than age. Pontecagnano shows similarities with other necropoli from Central and Southern Italy of the same age with almost a total lack of children younger than three years of age (Fulminante 2018), which is interpreted to indicate a regional cultural construct of a specific bio-social threshold. Further work investigating the archaeology of grief and emotion in response to infant death from these time periods may be useful to fully contextualize the experience of infant and child death.

The next paper by Pedrucci presents an analysis of votive statuettes representing adult/s with infant/s in ancient Latium and southern Etruria from approximately the fifth to the second centuries BCE, drawing on themes of religious agency, family dynamics, and space. A thorough review of statuettes in the region representing a man and/or woman and infant (and in rare cases two infants) was undertaken to better understand the motive and purpose of these votives. Pedrucci notes that these statuettes may have different meanings based on the context in which they were offered. For example, in relation to Fortuna Virgo or similar contexts related to the preparation of girls for their wedding, the author argues that these statuettes could express a wish on the part of the woman to be fulfilled. In other contexts, the statuette is argued to be an expression of gratitude for the established family and it is argued that a man may have been an agent in the offering. Pedrucci further argues that the central location of statuettes (e.g. in Rome, Satricum, Gabii, and Veii Campetti) within the city walls in urban contexts, a place mostly dominated by male activities, suggests that pater familias had an important and very visible role in offering these statuettes within the community.

Pudsey and Vuolanto present a systematic analysis of childhood from papyri from the Roman Egyptian metropolis of Oxyrhynchos from the late first century BCE to the sixth-century CE and found more than 700 records that mention children and young adults. Drawing on sociological approaches they ask several questions related to children and young adults’ agency in shaping and responding to their environment: How visible and accessible was the city from their perspective; what were the expected behaviors and what agency did they have in the city-space; what was the nature of young people’s attachment to a particular civic identity; and what were the limits of their movements? They found that children’s activities were central to the prosperity of the city and their families through their labor. Although most of the records refer to boys and young men, girls were important in some economic spheres, even though they were not deemed as important to document in education and political realms. The movement of boys was also seen in the urban center, including elite boys and slaves.

The final paper in this issue by Newman and Hodson explores the impact of increasing urbanization on infant and child health and disease in nineteenth-century London where there were significant issues of overcrowding, poor housing, and heavy air pollution. The authors weave together both historical documentary and skeletal evidence from the community of St Bride’s Church in the heart of London. They show the detrimental impact of poverty and social inequality on disease risk, resulting in a greater burden of infectious disease morbidity and mortality for the lower classes, which is further considered from within a socio-political and economic context and the social marginalization of the poor. Newman and Hodson acknowledge the potential for further research into the identification of specific infectious diseases in skeletal assemblages to extend understanding of nineteenth-century population health and socio-political/environmental change with increasing urbanization.

This issue showcases a breadth of disciplinary approaches to the study of infancy and childhood to investigate past societies before and during urbanization in Europe. Through the use of a range of methodological and theoretical approaches, including interdisciplinary approaches, these papers extend our knowledge of agency, labor, health and social relationships of children during this time.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Francesca Fulminante for the invitation to provide an introduction to this special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siân Halcrow

Siân Halcrow is an associate professor in Biological Anthropology at the University of Otago with research expertise in the bioarchaeology of infancy and childhood. She has published over 95 papers and chapters on the topic, including co-editing The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology: Small Beginnings, Significant Outcomes (Springer), and is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Bioarchaeology International. Dr Halcrow’s research addresses central archaeological questions on the intensification of agriculture and human responses to this seminal time in prehistory. She has bioarchaeological research projects in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South America.