He Child labor It is not a recent aberration or an isolated stain in history. Has always been there, rooted in societies that have normalized it as part of the economic cycle. For centuries, small hands have woven, dug, molded and loaded without questions. From the looms of the nineteenth century to the agricultural fields, the childhood has been treated as a More production tool. But if it is thought that this practice was born with the industrializationjust look back, much further back, until a time when First cities As soon as they began to expand.
The tests are there, printed on the clay 4,500 years ago. In the ancient Syrian city of Hamawithin the Kingdom of Eblaarchaeologists have found fingerprints of children in hundreds of ceramic fragments. It is not about accidental marks, but traces that reveal their Active participation in vessel productionespecially glasses that were used in real banquets and then discarded. This finding, the result of the analysis of more than 450 pieces, has changed the perspective on childhood in the ancient world: Children not only played or learned, they also worked.
Hama: A production center with children’s labor
The study, carried out by researchers from the Tel Aviv University and the Denmark National Museumdetermined at the end of 2024 that approximately Two thirds of the ceramics were made by children’s hands. The technique used to reach this conclusion is based on the Dactillary ridge measurementwhich allow estimating the age and sex of those who manipulated the clay. Thus it has been known that small potters began their learning to seven yearswith a balanced participation of boys and girls In production.
Hama was a important ceramic center In his time. The standard glasses that these children were manufactured were part of a mass production system. His demand was constant, since in each feast they were used and discarded in large quantities. To maintain the flow, the workshops instructed the children in a repetitive and meticulous process, ensuring that All pieces were identical. What is seen today as labor exploitation, at that time it was a Accepted practice within the economic structure of the city.
The interesting thing is that, despite being subject to this work discipline, children also found ways to express themselves through mud. Among the fragments studied, archaeologists discovered Small figurines and ceramic miniatures that did not follow the production pattern of the glasses. These pieces seem to have been created No adult supervisionwhich suggests that the little ceramists took moments to mold at will, escaping for a moment of the stiffness of the work imposed by their foremen.
Parallels with the industrial revolution
This phenomenon is not an isolated case in history. During the Industrial revolutionfor example, children were employed in textile factories and mines because their small hands and their ability to adapt to repetitive tasks made them the ideal workforce.
Something similar happened in Hama: when the city grows and increase ceramic production, the age of workers decreased. What began as a Office for adolescents ended up involving increasingly young childrenwhose hands left marks in the clay that now tell their story.
This discovery forces the traditional vision of childhood in the ancient world. For a long time, it was thought that Children were outside the economydedicated only to game and learning, and that it was the modern times that established this practice.
However, the vestiges found in Hama show otherwise: the Childhood was no stranger to work or mass production. In expanding societies, children have been considered part of the labor gear since time immemorial. And their footprints, trapped in the hardened mud of millennia ago, continue to tell what historical stories forgot to mention.
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