In this stimulating piece Kristiansen provides a trenchant critique of the provincialism of much European archaeology (though he tends to concentrate his argument on prehistory), but he does not really engage with the question of whether we need an archaeology of Europe until his closing paragraphs. Here his answer is that ‘Europe and its regions [are] a far better and less exclusive frame of reference than the dominant local and national framework’ (p. NN) – i.e. we need an archaeology of Europe not to exclude others but in order to transcend narrow provincialism. Like Kristiansen, I too would like to put off engaging with the question, and start by examining his argument.