Our June lecture will follow our AGM at about 6.45 pm.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Leventis Gallery outside the lecture theatre.

Egyptian State Formation and the Entanglements of Personhood, Power and Emotions in Predynastic Children’s Burials

Archaeological analyses of child funerary remains have often revolved around discussions of ascribed status and demographic trends. Other social and spatial dimensions of child burial are often left unexplored. Pablo Barba’s analysis of child burials in Predynastic Egypt focuses on the changing rates and spatial distribution of child burials in community necropoleis, with special attention to how their placement was used to renegotiate power relationships, and perhaps even concepts of personhood, in Predynastic society. Pablo considers the importance of children’s funerals for creating of a sense of community through attachment to place. He emphasises the contribution of childhood, practice theory, emotions, and personhood for the study of social complexity. His arguments point towards significant changes in the emotional dimension of children’s funerary practices experienced during the later fourth millennium BC and links these transformations to processes of state formation in Egypt.

Pablo Barba has a BA in Archaeology from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, and an MA from UCL in Egyptian and Near Eastern Heritage and Archaeology. His doctoral research is entitled “The entanglements of personhood, memory and emotions in the graves of children from Predynastic Egypt”. It is the compilation of a database of sub-adult graves, in order to explore the expression of grief and personhood in these Egyptian burials from the 4^th millenium BC. 

He has participated in archaeological fieldwork in La Rioja (Spain), Menorca, and the South of France; and has published articles in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, and Archéo-nil.