This book is the result of a day-long session held at the 1995 meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, which took place in Santiago de Compostela. It brings together a diversity of perspectives on the archaeology of prestige, wealth and value, broadly defined, from the earliest human societies in Eurasia to the historical period. Topics range from the relative value of tasks in the Upper Palaeolithic, through cattle as wealth, ceramics as high-value items and burials as status symbols in the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age, to consumer behaviour in the early modern period. It also includes general studies considering topics such as fame, objectification, embodiment and value from a diachronic perspective.