The conference aims to bring together scholars across multiple disciplines, in particular archaeology, physical and cultural anthropology. The first day of the conference will address the theme ‘Pregnancy, birth, early infancy and childhood: life’s greatest transitions in the past’. The second day is open to further aspects of recent research into children and childhood in the past.

The themed session emerges from the ERC project ‘The Value of mothers to society: responses to motherhood and child rearing practices in prehistoric Europe’ hosted by the Institute of Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and is jointly organised with the Department of Anthropology of the Natural History Museum.