The origin of this book lies in the publication and reception of an earlier work on the Bronze Age, The Bronze Age in Europe (1979), which J. M. Coles and I wrote in the mid-1970s. The work represented the first attempt to give a continent-wide (if necessarily superficial) account of a complicated set of materials, and remains the only such work. Though the critical reception was on the whole favourable, it rapidly became evident that as a tool for understanding the Bronze Age it was of limited use, framed as it was around a descriptive approach to the culture sequence in each area of Europe. In spite of this, many people continue to ask whether a revised edition of The Bronze Age in Europe will be produced. The answer is that, though it may be needed, the enormous amount of work which would be necessary to bring it up to date would be quite beyond the powers and wishes of its authors, who have other tasks to fulfil and interests to pursue.

Instead, I have felt for a number of years that what would be of much more use would be a work which sought to analyse different aspects of the Bronze Age on a thematic basis. Other commitments prevented me from starting it until 1994, and as I have proceeded I have often felt that the enterprise was a rash one. For a start, the sheer volume of material that has been produced in the last twenty years, and continues to pour out, is staggering.