Constructions of Childhood in the Ancient World
November 6–8, 2003
An interdisciplinary symposium organized by Dartmouth College’s Art History and Classics Departments and the Hood Museum of Art.

Hood Museum of Art
Dartmouth College
Arthur M. Loew Auditorium

Constructions of Childhood in the Ancient World is a multidisciplinary conference focusing on the representation of children in the ancient Mediterranean region. Specialists in art history, archaeology, classics, history, literature, and anthropology will present papers ranging from prehistory to the late antique and early Christian periods. Varied in their methodology and their approaches, these papers will explore topics such as family life, socialization, religion, sexuality and gender, death and burial, and the variety of their intersections with childhood. Several papers bear significant implications for the question of whether ancient cultures saw childhood as a separate stage of life with a logic and activities all its own or simply as a preparation for adulthood.

The symposium is sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Benefit Foundation (U.S.A.) and funded in part by the Fannie and Alan Leslie Center for the Humanities at Dartmouth College.