The last few decades witnessed increasing attention to the study of the state and
role of children in different historical and prehistoric periods. The graves of those
who unfortunately died in their childhood are one of the most informative and important
sources for this topic in prehistoric research, which, thanks to modern scientific
methods, can provide information not only about the diseases or sex of the young deceased,
but also about their lifestyle (e.g., their diet). However, we should not forget that
the way children are buried and their grave goods reveal primarily the relationship
of the adult community to the youngest generation and their loss and mourning. The
period between 2200/2100 and 1600/1500 BC is the end of the Early Bronze Age and the
whole Middle Bronze Age in Hungary. The territory of Western Hungary was then the
borderland between the Central European Únětice and related cultures (e.g., Gáta-Wieselburg)
adopting inhumation mortuary practice and the groups of the Carpathian Basin with
cremation rites (Kisapostag and the Transdanubian Encrusted Pottery Culture). Children
were buried in 30–40% of the excavated burials, and while archaeological analysis
of these graves can provide limited insights into what it was like to be a child in
the Bronze Age, it can also shed light on key aspects of social organisation between
3500 and 4000 years ago.
