The Bronze Age in France is something of a Cinderella period, sandwiched between the Stone Age—préhistoire—and classical archaeology, which appeared in some regions during the Early Iron Age. About 25 years ago, two organisations were established that have helped remedy this. In 1999, a group of Bronze Age enthusiasts from different backgrounds met in Bayeux and formed the Association pour la promotion des recherches sur l’âge du bronze (APRAB). APRAB convenes an annual meeting in Saint-German-en-Laye for presentation of new finds and research results, which are published in the APRAB bulletin, and it organises regular conferences and issues publications. This focus on the Bronze Age has made this comprehensive overview of the period much easier to achieve. The Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (Inrap) was created by the French government in 2001 to conduct surveys and investigations before building projects and to disseminate the results. These companion volumes appear in a series Inrap publishes. They are part of a year-long project designed to highlight the Bronze Age and combine more traditional aspects such as bronze typology with the results of recent extensive excavations. Both editors have played a leading role in the advancement of French Bronze Age studies, the first through his work as a director of Inrap in Normandy and the second as president of APRAB. The contents of the books are available to download on the Inrap website (see above), along with the full bibliography for the synthetic volume (https://inrap.hal.science/hal-05026387).

For the regional volume 1, France is divided into three large ‘cultural entities’: Atlantic, centre-eastern and Mediterranean. Within these entities, chapters are devoted to regions that are mainly those traditionally discussed although some—such as Hauts-de-France comprising Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Picardy—may be unfamiliar. Each chapter follows a consistent format of geography and environment, chronology, settlement, burials, hoards and conclusion. A series of icons is used in schematic tables to show the presence of different features during successive phases of the Bronze Age. There are numerous illustrations, particularly of pottery sequences. The editors contribute a final chapter that emphasises how much new information has been revealed over the past 30 years, although variation in development means its distribution is geographically uneven. The publication lists 101 authors although some of them contributed to more than one chapter. It would be invidious to single out individual contributors but your reviewer would make an exception because Mireille David-Elbiali of Geneva University deserves special credit as reader of both volumes for the committee of referees.

The second, thematic volume opens with a short introduction on ‘bronzization’ proposing that the Bronze Age was the first premodern period of detectable globalisation. In Atlantic France, tin bronze was adopted around 2200 BC as in Britain and Ireland and before other parts of Europe. There are four substantial chapters: the Bronze Age period; everyday life; artisanal production; and society. While much of their content will appeal mainly to traditional specialists, some should be of interest to readers who are not otherwise concerned with the Bronze Age or the archaeology of France. The first illustration is an engraving dated 1874 by Ernest Chantre of a mould for a winged axe, which reminds us that France was ahead of most European countries in recognising the Bronze Age during the nineteenth century. Chantre himself is the subject of a section in the first chapter, which opens with the history of research, continues with chronology and concludes with discussing climate and environment. In the everyday-life chapter, sections on buildings, settlements and food (vegetarian, carnivorous and pescatarian) are interspersed with case studies, including wells in eastern France and the cultivation of millet during the Bronze Age. Mining and raw materials, bronze technology and goldworking open the chapter on artisanal production followed by surveys of major bronze types (swords, axes and ornaments) and discussion of specialist production. After a rather brief section on pottery production, textiles, glass and amber are considered. Bronze returns in the discussion of recycling and deposition including substantial sections on hoards in both dry and wet contexts and on grave-goods. The final chapter begins with mobility of goods and people, sea travel, the role of horses and carts, ancient DNA, various aspects of burial and social hierarchy. Some of these subjects require consideration of evidence outside France and the maps in the section on warriors and violence provide an excellent overview of bronze helmets, body armour and shields throughout Europe. A photograph in this section showing that ancien combattant of the French Bronze Age, Jean-Pierre Mohen (although he is not named), recovering a cuirass at Marmesse reminded your reviewer of his own studies in the Musée d’Archéologie nationale in Saint-Germain-en-Laye 50 years ago when Mohen was Bronze Age curator there. Next comes evidence for gender among burials, then children in Bronze Age society are discussed. The final section covers myths and beliefs, including cosmological images current from the thirteenth to ninth centuries BC, featuring the solar boat with birds, and archaeoastronomy during the Bronze Age, again with case studies. The editors conclude with a summary and a forward look, which envisages research and rescue archaeology as complementary.

Congratulations to all those involved in this excellent survey. Vive l’âge du Bronze!