ABSTRACT
Archaeology, until remarkably recently, has paid little attention to the importance of age as one of the fundamental aspects of the organisation of past social groups. It has, furthermore, failed to see age as an extremely variable aspect. Previously, when archaeologists have written about social aspects of the past, it has been as if that past were peopled predominantly by adults, rather than also by the young (and old), who are a necessary part of any community. The nature of age groups, and the vastly differing roles they can play in the operation of different societies, has thus not been fully considered in the interpretation of archaeological material.
