The period in north-west Europe in the last two millennia BC, up to the Roman conquest, was one of systematic settlement and land division which saw the birth of architecture in wood, the development of rural crafts, the establishment of stratified societies and the evolution of true urban settlements. The authors of this book use primary archaeological data to explain this complex process of technological economic and social evolution, which produced a remarkable level of cultural unity in a vast region stretching from the Danube to the Atlantic coasts of Europe. In so doing they present a picture remarkably different from that projected by ancient writers.