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This book explores the meaning of adolescence, a critical period of the life course, through the analysis of material culture, historical documents, skeletal remains, isotope analysis, and other ...
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  • 01 December 2025
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Adolescence is a critical period of the life course, encapsulating biological and social changes as individuals transition from childhood to adulthood. While the archaeology of childhood is a rapidly growing field, there has been little formal discussion on how adolescence may be biologically or socially defined and the spatial and temporal variability within these definitions. This book explores the meaning of adolescence through the analysis of material culture, historical documents, skeletal remains, isotope analysis, and other lines of evidence. Considering the implications for archaeologists and biological anthropologists, this book investigates the lived experiences of adolescents in the past to further our understanding of past societies.

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Price: $135.00
Pages: 224
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Imprint: Berghahn Books
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781836952879
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE/Archaeology
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Creighton Avery is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and an Osteoarcheologist with Stantec Consulting Ltd.  Recent publication includes a field guide Bioarcheology of Infants and Children for the series of Current Archaeological Tools and Techniques for the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA and Cambridge University Press.

List of Illustrations
Preface

Introduction: The (Bio)Archaeology of Adolescence
Creighton Avery and Dana Thacher

Chapter 1. Adolescence in the European Upper Paleolithic: Are There Temporal and Spatial Trends?
Jennifer French and April Nowell Appendix

Chapter 2. From Childhood to Adulthood in Iberia During the Bell Beaker Period (2500–2000 cal. BC) 34
Ana M. Herrero Corral

Chapter 3. A Tale of Two Cities: Exploring the Biological and Social Transformations of Adolescence in the Roman Empire
Creighton Avery

Chapter 4. Being and Becoming: The Archaeology of Adolescence in the Ancient Andes
Sarah I. Baitzel, Bridget C. Bey, and Allisen C. Dahlstedt

Chapter 5. Viking Age Adolescence: An Osteoarchaeological Assessment of Puberty in a Gotlandic Viking Age Community
Marieke Ivarsson-Aalders

Chapter 6. Crime, Punishment, and Adolescent Wrongdoers in Early Medieval England
Dawn Hadley

Chapter 7. The Body and Gendered Ideology as Expressed Through Adolescent Commemoration in Victorian and Edwardian England
Dana Thacher

Chapter 8. Transitional Youths: Defining “Adolescence” in Nineteenth-Century New York City Through Skeletal Remains
Meredith Ellis

Conclusion: The (Bio)Archaeology of Adolescence: Challenges and Opportunities
Kathryn Kamp

Final Remarks
Index