Examines paradox of politically and economically undiversified European Bronze Age society despite wide trading networks.

1. Background to the inquiry; 2. Background to the archaeology; 3. Theoretical context; 4. Regional systems: the social and cultural landscape in Europe in the Late Bronze Age, 1100-750 BC; 5. Regional divergence: the Mediterranean and Europe in the 9th-8th centuries BC; 6. The new economic axis: Central Europe and the Mediterranean 750-450 BC; 7. Transformation and expansion: the Celtic movement, 450-150 BC; 8. The emergence of the European world system in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age: Europe in the 1st and 2nd millennia BC.