ABSTRACT
This introduction gives an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book draws attention to why history of ancient childhood should by studied, how this may be done, what the present state of the field is, and what the prospects for further research can be. It focuses on a painting, Children's Games, by Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. First, the picture portrays a vast number of children, of varying social standing, and belonging to different age groups. The second point that makes the picture very special is grounded in what is not shown, but what might be expected to have been present: adults are nearly missing from the painting. The book emphasizes mostly on ideas about children and childhood. It embraces a period of nearly two millennia, from the fifth century BCE to approximately the fourteenth century CE, covering the epochs that are usually referred to as antiquity and the Middle Ages.
