Childhood in protohistory in the southern Carpathian Basin

ARHKIDS (IP-2019-04-2520)

Principal investigator

Daria Ložnjak Dizdar

researchers

Marko Dizdar, Ivan Drnić, Julie Dunne, Aleksandar Kapuran,  Snježana Karavanić, Janja Mavrović Mokos, Petra Rajić Šikanjić, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Christophe Snoeck, Joanna Sofaer

Project duration

1. 2020. - 31. 1. 2024.

The project Childhood in protohistory in the southern Carpathian Basin (ARHKIDS) is a multidisciplinary study of children and child-related material traces found in graves, settlements, and other archaeological contexts in the period from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. The combined multidisciplinary approach, which includes archaeological and anthropological analyses, residue analyses of ceramic vessels, and analyses of the stable isotopes of anthropological samples, study the biological and social ages of children, the everyday activities undertaken by children – playing, adopting skills, working, interacting with the environment, and child-related rituals. The diachronic study of children and childhood over a long time period (1400 BC – 100 BC) indicate the status of children in different communities and periods and their contribution to the transfer of knowledge and skills in past societies. The study of children from communities that lived sustainable way of life, connected with and dependent on nature and the environment, can show us which value, knowledge and skills have enduring value and are necessary for the transfer of social and cultural values into the future.