ABSTRACT
Children, no doubt, were significant members of Upper Palaeolithic societies. Yet, while they have populated artist’s reconstructions, museum dioramas and works of fiction, they are rarely encountered in the archaeological literature. One of my interests has been in children’s fiction and non-fiction books with prehistoric themes through which presentday young people glean messages about the past (Roveland 1993, 1994, 1997a). More recently, I have begun to consider the implications of including children in archaeological interpretations about the Eurasian Palaeolithic (Roveland 1997b). The following is an initial attempt to articulate some of my thoughts on these seemingly disparate topics and to advance a dialogue on children in the Upper Palaeolithic. In order to launch such discussions, thousands of years of prehistory and vast areas are conveniently collapsed. In the future more fine-grained analyses which employ specific bodies of data should be developed.
