Abstract
For some years it has been obvious that the new tree-ring-calibrated radiocarbon dates would necessitate a drastic revision in conventional time scales and in the whole structure of cultural relationships developed for the European Mesolithic and Neolithic. The full assessment of the new pattern, however, has to await the time when relative archaeological sequences, based on stratigraphy and supposed cross-datings, become supplemented with or replaced by approximately absolute chronologies covering each of the major cultural provinces of Europe.