Recent developments in molecular genetics are currently transforming our understanding of the population history of the world. Their application to the prehistory and history of Europe was the focus of an interdisciplinary meeting held in Cambridge in 1999 as a Euroconference of the Human Genome Diversity Group. The papers describe the latest developments in this fast-moving area, with a clear and accessible discussion of the results of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosone analysis and of their integration with the archaeological and climatic record. Here for the first time it is possible to assess the impact of molecular genetics upon European prehistory. This volume will be, therefore, essential reading for all those, including archaeologists and genetecists, concenerned with the reconstruction of the prehistory of Europe and with this new, multidisciplinary field of research.