Part I. Between Myth and Logos: 1. Materialities of complexity in ancient Eurasia Manuel Fernández-Götz and Dirk Krausse; 2. Cognitive archaeology and the making of the human mind Colin Renfrew; 3. History of writing, history of rationality David Olson; 4. The impact of social differentiation on identity: lights and shadows of the individualization process Almudena Hernando; 5. The Neolithic conquest of the Mediterranean Jean Guilaine; 6. Low-density urbanism: the case of the Trypillia group of Ukraine John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska; 7. From the Neolithic to the Iron Age – demography and social agglomeration: the development of centralized control? Johannes Müller; 8. Early state formation from a big history point of view Fred Spier; 9. Reframing ancient economies: new models, new questions Gary Feinman; 10. How can archaeologists identify early cities? Definitions, types, and attributes Michael E. Smith; 11. Towns between de-territorialisation and networking: on the dynamics of urbanization in the global context Hans-Peter Hahn; Part II. Ancient Civilizations at the Turn of the Axis: 12. Egypt in the 'axial age' Jan Assmann; 13. Conservative vs innovative cultural areas in the Near East Mario Liverani; 14. Elite burials in first-millennium BC China: towards individualization Alain Thote; 15. Giant tumuli of the Iron Age: tradition – monumentality – knowledge transfer Svend Hansen; Part III. Times of Connectivity: The Mediterranean on the Move: 16. Agency, structure, and the unconscious in the longue durée John Bintliff; 17. Phoenicians abroad: from merchant venturers to colonists María Eugenia Aubet; 18. Spheres of interaction: temperate Europe and the Mediterranean world in the Iron Age John E. Collis; Part IV. Early Urban Cultures from South to North: 19. The determinacy of space and state formation in archaic Greece Jonathan M. Hall; 20. Intercultural networks and urbanization in Southern Italy in the early Iron Age Massimo Osanna; 21. Power and place in Etruria Simon Stoddart; 22. Urbanization processes and cultural change in the early Iron Age of Central Europe Manuel Fernández-Götz and Dirk Krausse; 23. Founding rituals and myths in the Keltiké Martín Almagro-Gorbea; Part V. Changing Symbols, Changing Minds?: 24. Phase transition, axial age, and axis displacement: from the Hallstatt to the La Tène culture Rudolf Echt; 25. Early Celtic art in context Otto-Herman Frey; 26. Images, ornament, and cognition in early La Tène Europe: a new style for a changing world Peter S. Wells; 27. The network genesis of the La Tène cultures: a western point of view Pierre-Yves Milcent.