This volume grew out of the proceedings of an international conference on the Prehistory of Mining and Metallurgy hosted by The British Museum in 1995. The original papers are augmented by the inclusion of participants' more recent work and additional contributions by other leading experts in the field.

A study of the different types of amphorae found along the important Amber trade route in western Pannonia. It throws light on the history of the province, as well as the commercial connections of the Roman Empire.

Originally published in 1985, the 18 papers in this volume, which were read at the Symposium on Early Furnace technology at the British Museum in 1982, have been reprinted. Contributors include: R.F. Tylecote & J.F. Merkel (experimental smelting techniques); W.A. Oddy & J. Swaddling (illustrations of metalworking furnaces on Greek vases); S. Bernus & N. Echard (metalworking in Niger); B. Rothenberg (copper smelting furnaces in the Araba, Israel); J.S. Hodgkinson & C.F. Tebutt (the Romano-British iron industry in the Weald); M. Bamberger (working conditions of the ancient copper smelting process); R.E. Clough (the iron industry in Iron Age and Roman Britain); E. Photos, S.J. Filippakis & C.J. Salter (investigations of some metallurgical remains at Knossos); M. Werner (evidence for gold-smelting in Yugoslavia in the Late Roman period).