Adolescence is a stage of development unique to the human life course, during which key social, physical, and cognitive milestones are reached. Nonetheless, both the experience of adolescence and the role(s) of adolescents in the past have received little scholarly attention. Here we combine a broad interpretative framework for adolescence among prehistoric hunter-gatherers with direct bioarchaeological (burial) data to examine the lives of teenagers in the European Mid-Upper Paleolithic or Gravettian (∼35–25,000 years ago). Comparisons of the burial practices of individuals of different age classes (infant, child, adolescent, adult), as well as between adolescents who died at different ages, reveal some patterns related to adolescence in these communities, including 1) fewer distinctions based on sex among adolescents compared to adults; 2) differences between the sexes in age-at-death within our ‘adolescent’ age class—with females disproportionally dying later—potentially indicating high risks associated with first pregnancy; 3) distinctions in grave goods and diet among adolescents of different ages-at-death which we tentatively interpret as providing an emic perspective on the beginning of adolescence as defined by Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. Nonetheless, our analysis supports long-standing models of a distinct, continent-wide European Mid-Upper Paleolithic funerary tradition, with the burial data expressing social cohesion, rather than social distinctions, between age classes.

青春期是人类生命过程中独特的发展阶段，在此期间达到关键的社会、身体和认知里程碑。尽管如此，青春期的经历和过去青少年的角色都很少受到学术界的关注。在这里，我们将史前狩猎采集者青春期的广泛解释框架与直接生物考古（埋葬）数据相结合，以检查欧洲中上旧石器时代或 Gravettian（约 35-25,000 年前）青少年的生活。比较不同年龄段（婴儿、儿童、青少年、成人）的个体以及在不同年龄死亡的青少年的埋葬做法，揭示了这些社区中与青春期有关的一些模式，包括 1）基于性别的区别较少青少年与成人相比；2）在我们的“青春期”年龄段内，性别之间的死亡年龄差异——女性死亡时间不成比例——可能表明与第一次怀孕相关的高风险；3）不同死亡年龄的青少年在严重物品和饮食方面的区别，我们暂时将其解释为提供了更新世狩猎采集者定义的青春期开始的主宰观点。尽管如此，我们的分析支持一个独特的、欧洲大陆范围内的旧石器时代中晚期丧葬传统的长期模型，墓葬数据表达了年龄层之间的社会凝聚力，而不是社会差异。3）不同死亡年龄的青少年在严重物品和饮食方面的区别，我们暂时将其解释为提供了更新世狩猎采集者定义的青春期开始的主宰观点。尽管如此，我们的分析支持一个独特的、欧洲大陆范围内的旧石器时代中晚期丧葬传统的长期模型，墓葬数据表达了年龄层之间的社会凝聚力，而不是社会差异。3）不同死亡年龄的青少年在严重物品和饮食方面的区别，我们暂时将其解释为提供了更新世狩猎采集者定义的青春期开始的主宰观点。尽管如此，我们的分析支持一个独特的、欧洲大陆范围内的旧石器时代中晚期丧葬传统的长期模型，墓葬数据表达了年龄层之间的社会凝聚力，而不是社会差异。