Fuel was an essential element for both domestic activities (e.g. cooking and heating, artisanal and (proto-)industrial production) and cremation rituals. Fuel use in the Low Counties has been studied for the Roman and medieval period, indicating that important changes took place in the circulation and use of different fuel types (wood, charcoal, peat, coal), and reflecting depletion of natural resources, technological innovations, and changes in funeral rites (Deforce & Haneca 2012; Deforce et al. 2021; Dekoninck et al. 2024). For the Metal Ages, however, fuel use has hardly been studied. Therefore, the project aims at investigating the selection and use of fuel within the cremation ritual, through anthracological analysis of charcoal residues complimented with FTIR measurements. The produced data will show whether observed changes in funerary practices and population dynamics during the Bronze to Late Iron Age (e.g. Stamataki et al. 2021; Dalle et al. 2023) are reflected in fuel use and pyrotechnology, but also provide the missing data to study these aspects in the transfer of knowledge, technologies and ideas over longer time series, i.e. from the Bronze Age to the Early Medieval Period.