This volume examines long-term processes of social change and settlement practices in later prehistoric and early medieval Wales. As a case-study, it examines the settlement archaeology of north-west Wales encompassing the counties of Gwynedd, Anglesey and west Conwy, and covering a period of two millennia from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Early Medieval period (1150 BC - AD 1050). The shifting dynamics underlying society are examined throughout this period in the introductory chapters via an exploration of settlement and hill fort architectures, the distribution patterns of site-types, and the histories of particular places, with comparisons drawn from the evidence in other regions of Britain and Ireland. Much of the data comes from the grey literatures and Gwynedd Archaeological Trust Historic Environment Record, making much unpublished information available for the first time.

These fifteen papers came out of the eighth annual meeting of the Iron Age Research Student Seminar (IARSS) and are loosely grouped into three topics: settlement studies, deposition and material culture, and experimental archaeology. Most of the studies are re-examinings of well known data sets, such as hillforts, small enclosures and bone assemblages, both human and animal. They are mainly focused on the British Iron Age - one of the most heterogeneous and regionally distinctive periods in British prehistory. Material culture is highly variable, as are settlement patterns, and even chronology is of an entirely local character, being reliant on typological sequences from each region's specific archaeological record. The book ends with the recounting of a trip to the Iron Age village at St. Fagan's, Cardiff - a practical foray into the Iron Age day-to-day.