For almost forty years the study of the Iron Age in Britain has been dominated by Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe. Between the 1960s and 1980s he led a series of large-scale excavations at famous sites including the Roman baths at Bath, Fishbourne Roman palace, and Danebury hillfort which revolutionized our understanding of Iron Age society, and the interaction between this world of 'barbarians' and the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean. His standard text on Iron Age Communities in Britain is in its fourth edition, and he has published groundbreaking volumes of synthesis on The Ancient Celts (OUP, 1997) and on the peoples of the Atlantic coast, Facing the Ocean (OUP, 2001). This volume brings together papers from more than thirty of Professor Cunliffe's colleagues and students to mark his retirement from the Chair of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, a post which he has held since 1972. The breadth of the contributions, extending over 800 years and ranging from the Atlantic fringes to the eastern Mediterranean, is testimony to Barry Cunliffe's own extraordinarily wide interests.

Chris Gosden is Professor of European Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford Helena Hamerow is Professor of Earle Medieval Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford.
Philip de Jersey is Post-Doctoral Researcher, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Gary Lock is Professor of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology and Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford.