Children in Antiquity: Greece and Egypt

Abstract

Childhood in antiquity was both remarkably different and, in some ways, remarkably similar to childhood as we know it today. While infant mortality was shockingly high in the ancient Mediterranean, and there were marked differences in the lives and experiences of boys and girls, rich and poor, and of free and slave children, the creativity and playfulness of youth is universal. Play is one area where human instinct and creativity offers direct parallels between the ancient past and our own present. This exhibition of artefacts from the Nicholson Museum collection explores aspects of children’s lives in ancient Greece and Egypt. Themes of birth and infancy, youth, education, play, work, religion and death and burial are brought together to portray the day-to-day experience of childhood in the ancient world.