Lecture by Dr. Erin Bornemann, Director of Information Management for the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. The mortuary record affords archaeologists a unique snapshot in time and space, providing further information surrounding the larger social context of death and burial in archaeological contexts that are often not discernible from other non-burial settings. Studies of such contexts provide material evidence for objects the deceased may have used in life, but more certainly for objects that the living found significant to include with the deceased in their final resting place. This lecture will present archaeological case studies based on the author’s research in Coastal California and Sudan that demonstrate cross-cultural differences in the expression of death and burial, with a specific focus on an underrepresented portion of most burial populations: children. Using lenses of materiality, personhood, and childhood, this lecture will discuss how these two cultural spheres—vastly different in time, space, and material culture—took great care in the burials of children in their communities, and how these burial contexts can inform our knowledge regarding the ascription of personhood in these societies.