Published for the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.

Papers presented here offer an account of some of the results of recent settlement-pattern archaeology in Transdanubia (Western Hungary) from the Late Bronze Age until Late Roman times. They were specially selected for this volume and mark a significant development for, until recently, little attention has been paid to this aspect of Iron Age studies in Hungary.

The common characteristic of these papers is an emphasis on transitional periods, hitherto neglected, and an attempt to break away from the single period-dominated approach. 

The papers utilize new data derived from intensive field work and from recent systematic excavations at Iron Age defended and open settlements and their related cemeteries. The work was carried out by the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

These explorations are an integrated part of other projects of the Institute aimed at discovering the total settlement-pattern of selected areas. The work includes a series of micro-regional studies, employing new surveying methods, which have been carried out in the framework of excellently functioning Hungarian-English cooperation.