This Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports Special Issue was prompted by the organisers of the Second International Conference on Archaeometallurgy (ICA II), which was held at the Lettres Sorbonne Université and École Normale Supérieure de Cachan in Paris, and the Plateforme expérimentale de Melle (CNRS, Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux) in the Poitou region, France, from the 25th of September to the 1st of October 2019. The conference was made possible thanks to the support of the Lettres Sorbonne Université (ED 1, FIR), CNRS UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée (team Mondes pharaoniques) and the MSH Paris-Saclay, and took place within the framework of the Collective Research Program: “L’expérimentation paléométallurgique: de l’analogie à la modélisation” (SRA Nouvelle-Aquitaine, French Ministry of Culture). The conference was organised by Georges Verly, Florian Téreygeol, Claire Somaglino and Frederik Rademakers, further assisted by Johannes Auenmüller, Adeline Bats, Roeland Paardekooper, Jean-Philippe Marnais and Jean-Charles Méaudre.