A plethora of organisations are devoted to the archaeology of the post-1550 period, with a range of different, and often oppositional, approaches. Fearing the fragmentation and balkanisation of the discipline, the editors convened a conference, the proceedings of which this volume publishes, to get members of the various organisations together to discuss the practice of post-1550 archaeology and outline problems, potential problems and future directions for the discipline, and how the work of archaeologists ties into and is affected by the museums and heritage sectors. Contributors are drawn from the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, the Association for Industrial Archaeology, the Contemporary Historical Archaeology and Theory List, the Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group and the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland.