Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe focuses primarily on the period from 7000 B.C.E., when agricultural communities first began appearing in southeastern Europe, to the first century C.E., when western Europe was progressively incorporated into the Roman imperium. Its coverage includes the development and spread of agriculture in Europe; the associated evolution of social class divisions and occupational specialization; the growth of settlement complexity; the emergence of complex belief systems; the development of pastoralism and the interplay between pastoral and agrarian societies; the spread of the Indo-European languages; the growth of militarism; the impact of new technologies; and other major issues.