ANN ARBOR, Mich.—What was childhood like in the ancient world? The exhibition, “Archaeologies of Childhood: The First Years of Life in Roman Egypt,” at the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology uses material from Egypt under Roman rule to give a glimpse into the lives of children in that place and time.

The exhibition opens Nov. 14 and runs through Sept. 2004. Admission is free.

Two thousand years ago, infant child mortality rates were high; health care and education were limited. Natural dangers were abundant and child abandonment and slavery were facts of life.

Like today, factors including status, ethnicity and gender, as well as individual circumstances, made for varying experiences of childhood. U-M’s rich holdings in material from Roman Egypt show what children looked like and how they learned and played. They also help to understand the expectations and concerns of children in a North African culture that existed 2,000 years ago.

Objects of daily use from Kelsey excavations in Egypt at the Roman period town of Karanis provide an unparalleled look at life in a rural farming community. Many of the items in this exhibition, including toys, dolls, remnants of children’s clothing, images of children, protective amulets and educational tools, come from homes at Karanis. The exhibition will also feature material resulting from investigations of a child mummy from Roman Egypt. A recent student project created CT-scan images of the mummified remains of a boy in the Kelsey Museum, revealing surprising information that may shed light on an unusual social practice in ancient Egypt. The exhibition will include images of the mummy, inside and out, as well as a 3-D model of its skull created from the CT-scans.

Childhood in the ancient world is a relatively new area of study for scholars—the evidence for childhood is often hard to identify and its significance has often been neglected. The material in this exhibition is part of new research by U-M faculty and students to recover knowledge of childhood in Roman Egypt.

For more information on Kelsey Museum, visit: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/.