Research into furniture has not been a priority for archaeologists. Fixed installations are often studied without the necessary rigor or clear definition. More often than not, the identification of installations remains subjective, unexplained and dependent on the interpretation of the spaces that the furniture should have helped to identify.

The series of workshops that gave rise to this book addressed key issues such as the perception of spaces, their functionality in relation to layout, multifunctionality and the question of multiple storeys. In the same way, archaeological analysis benefits from being confronted with texts, which, when it comes to architecture, are at once episodic, rich and complex.

This book is dedicated to Jean-Claude Margueron, who never ceased to encourage archaeologists to work rigorously on architecture. It begins with a biography of Jean Margueron by Beatrice Muller and an almost definitive list of his writings. The first part (strengths, failures and problems of furniture) comprises three general chapters, which set out the problem, attempt to define what is meant by fixed installations, set out the method and underline the difficulties of the research. The second part (case studies) comprises seven chapters, based on the study of concrete cases, in an attempt to demonstrate the importance of studying fixed installations and the usefulness of comparing them with textual data.