Whatever the journalist’s definition of eastern Europe might be (cf. S. Milisauskas in ANTIQUITY 64: 283], let us state, as introduction to this Special Section, that Czechoslovakia (FIGURE 1) is a country in Central, not Eastern, Europe. It is somewhat controversial to speak about its ‘return to Europe’, as some politicians would have it, as it has been there all the time. After the period of limited contacts of Czechoslovak archaeologists with their colleagues ‘in the West’ it is felt that now, in the changed (post-November-1989) situation, information on the current state of research, and especially on the approaches applied recently to the study of Czech and Slovak archaeological material (and perhaps on Czechoslovakia's geographical position as well?) may be of use for an interested English-speaking reader. The following – rather random – selection of articles is the result.