Evaluations and excavations are at the centre of INRAP's research policy. Field activities and their ensuing scientific reports are extended by a number of coordinated research strands, which serve to integrate the results of archaeological fieldwork within a broader scientific framework. These research directions include the Upper and Middle Palaeolithic periods; settlement patterns in the Middle and Late Neolithic; architecture, funerary practices and palaeo-anthropology during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages; funerary practices and societies during the Iron Age; funerary practices and the geography of death during Antiquity; religious and funerary archaeology in an urban context; production and work of iron; the evolution of territorial occupation as perceived through large-scale operations; and, for French Guyana and in the Lesser Antilles, recent evidence on the early peopling of these regions. The archaeological data and results attained lead, first and foremost, to a range of publications, seminars, conferences and scientific lectures. Every year, INRAP researchers publish more than 300 articles in scientific journals in France and abroad.