Index Dutch Bronze Age
Index first farmers in the Netherlands
Early farmers Burials in Germany
The analysis of 250 childrenīs graves in Germany and the neighbouring regions showed that about one third of those burried in cemeteries were children. Infants up to one year were rarely found and often a specific minimum age was required for burial in a cemetery. Usually children received less grave goods and some objects were only deposited from a certain age onwards. The highest frequency of grave goods was found in graves of the 8 to 10-year-old, the lowest in the graves of the 12 to 14-year-old.
Teenagers who died at the very transition to adulthood were furnished particularly rich sometimes. Small beakers with holes opposed to each other were a child-specific grave good. Childrenīs grave goods often had a different make, size or position in the grave as compared to adult grave goods, while the structure of the grave was usually identical with adult graves.
Settlement burials differred from cemetery burials with regard to a high percentage of infants and females, rarer, less diverse and other grave goods and other unusual features. In multiple and mass graves and in skull depositions children were represented, too.
Source: The child in the Linear Pottery Culture. Evidence from cemeteries and settlements in Central Europe, Beate Siemoneit 1997 / Burial rites, child graves, Danubian culture, settlement burial - German text, with a summary in English Order this book