The text explores the potential of studying the social dimensions of old age and ageing in the past. It is argued that classification in calendric years is less useful for archaeological studies of old age. Instead, a composite ap- proach is advocated that focuses on the ageing body, based on case-specific identifiable traces of old age. The proposed approach is applied on a case study of the middle Neolithic burial ground Ajvide on the island of Gotland. Among the 62 published burials, twelve individuals reached an age of around 50–70 years, all showing osteological traces of old age. There are no signi- ficant differences between these and other graves in terms of interments, number of artefact types or burial construction. However, all but one of the six cases where graves overlap earlier graves contain individuals of advanced age. This suggests that old age indeed was recognized as a distinct category at Ajvide during the middle Neolithic.