The cauldrons and buckets of the later Bronze Age in Atlantic Europe, produced from the 12th to the 6th century BC, were some of the most complex fabrications made in that period of prehistory. They show a steadily increasing understanding of the problems posed by their design and an increasing elegance in their solution. At the same time, they demonstrate considerable awareness of materials properties and provide one of the clearest instances in the Bronze Age of materials selection for specific purposes.