Current calibration methods for single and replicate 14C dates are compared. Various forms of tabular and graphic output are discussed. Results from all the methods show reasonable agreement but further methodological development and improvements in computer output are required. Comparison of existing techniques for a series of non-contemporaneous dates showed less agreement amongst participants on this issue. We recommend that calibrated dates should be presented as a combination of graphs and ranges, in preference to mean and standard deviation.

Preceding papers in this section have underlined how much more there is to effective use of radiocarbon dating than the taking of some samples, their running in a laboratory, and the calibration of the individual dates that result. Here is a summary of where we are and where we may, with calibration, be going.

Interactive computer graphics designed for protein crystallography has also helped visualize a 5,000-year-old excavation site in three dimensions. Tomorrow's archaeologists stand to benefit from this marriage of the very old and the very new.