Children in the City

‘Children in the City' (Barn i byen) is a travelling exhibition produced by the Bryggen Museum in Bergen, Norway. It tells about childhood in the Middle Ages, shedding light on the concepts and characteristics of childhood. A significant source is archaeological finds. In the exhibition, Norwegian materials are supplemented by Finnish finds and research material.

What was it like to be a child more than five hundred years ago? Were children allowed to be children or were they regarded as little adults who had to manage as best they could? Did they have time for play, or did they have to work and help their parents around the house and look after their little brothers and sisters?

Large families, high child mortality, means of livelihood and the need for labour are among the factors that decide how children are perceived and treated. Seen in this perspective, being a child in the Middle Ages was probably to some extent different from being a child today.

During the Middle Ages, people who could write did not write about children as a rule. There are also few paintings depicting children. We can nevertheless find traces of children in medieval towns and cities. These traces tell us about children's everyday lives in towns a long, long time ago.