A University of Victoria professor is releasing a book on the lives of children in the Ice Age.

Department of Anthropology chair April Nowell has researched Plio-Pleistocene children and teenagers for the last two decades. Her new book, Growing up in the Ice Age: Fossil and archaeological evidence of the lived lives of Plio-Pleistocene children, will be available for purchase in North America this week.

It investigates neanderthal, australopithecine and early-modern human children and the roles they played in their communities.

Most of NowellB次元官网网址檚 evidence comes from the end of the Ice Age, 40,000 to 10,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic period. But some evidence ranges as far back as the earliest traces of human life seven million years ago.

B次元官网网址淭he area of the archaeological children has also really blossomed in the last two decades,B次元官网网址� she said, recalling there being minimal prior research on the subject. While some experts have deemed the topic of archaeological children B次元官网网址渦nknowable,B次元官网网址� Nowell attributed this belief to the unpredictable nature of children in general.

B次元官网网址淥ne of the things I argue is that kids are important drivers of human cultural evolution. They choose what they learn, who they learn from and they transmit that from one generation to the next.B次元官网网址�

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Archaeologists have argued that children have been more independent over time than society portrays them to be, crediting them as active learners and community members, Nowell said.

In fact, she estimated two thirds of tools from the Upper Paleolithic were made by children, noting they would have practised crafting throughout their childhoods.

B次元官网网址淏y not studying kids, IB次元官网网址檓 perhaps misinterpreting a large portion of the archaeological records.B次元官网网址�

A mother of two, Nowell began her research for the book by looking at kidsB次元官网网址� play behaviour. With her offspring now 19 and 22, she said it is no coincidence her work has concluded with Plio-Pleistocene teenagers.

She said a Plio-Pleistocene childB次元官网网址檚 use of an artifact should be seen as a new stage in that artifactB次元官网网址檚 history, rather than a distortion.

The bookB次元官网网址檚 final chapter addresses the value of investigating child evolution, while another chapter discusses the growth and life of teenagers in the Ice Age.

Nowell felt that her book is relevant beyond the field of archeology and can help one better understand children and teenagers today. For example, her findings show that identity crises are not universal for teenagers but that risk taking and innovation are.

She recalled one archaeological discovery where a boy suffering from dwarfism was found buried in the arms of a woman, likely his mother, from a time as long as 20,000 years ago. Nowell said it made her choke up and spoke to the relationship of the boyB次元官网网址檚 community as a whole.

B次元官网网址淓verything we do with communities is to help our kids thrive and continue on the generations, and that was as true then as it is now.B次元官网网址�

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Going forward, Nowell will investigate burial patterns for male and female Plio-Pleistocene children. She is also writing a textbook on anthropology ethics.

Growing up in the Ice Age can be pre-ordered through Indigo, including at Mayfair Mall, and elsewhere.

To learn more, go to .

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