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Acculturation and Continuity in Atlantic Europe. Edited by de Laet S. J.. 307 pages Diss. Arch. Gandensis XVI, Brugge 1976. Price not indicated.

Inescapably the use of calibrated dates, however tentatively and experimentally, implies at least a preliminary acceptance of the particular calibration curve employed. If it is incorrect, so is the calibration. But should such exploration of the implications of the calibration be condemned as 'premature dogmatism' ? These criticisms of the McKerrell-Snodgrass axis do not, however, prejudge the possibility of special problems with calibration over a specific, limited time range as McKerrell suggests. But an 'outsider's' approach may not be the most sensitive to these problems—the use by Snodgrass (p. 44) of the MASCA curve to calibrate certain dates without realising that two different half-lives are involved is an error which should not have passed uncorrected. In a broader perspective, of course, all of this discussion is to be welcomed as part of the necessary process of questioning and testing the calibration at every point. There is always the risk of too rapid acceptance of such a revolutionary innovation, and McKerrell and Snodgrass offer a useful corrective. But this contribution by the Edinburgh school has the effect of giving the book something of a split personality. The second part is confusing for the layman, while the first offers little for the specialist beyond the papers by Fletcher and the Ottaways. The papers at the original symposium were clearly both interesting and stimulating, but put together in this way without any firm editorial control they lack the unity or consistency to form a coherent book.