Since the inception of the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology in 2006 and the formation of the Society for American Archaeology’s Island and Coastal Archaeology Interest Group in 2013, the recognition of island and coastal archaeology as a research focus has grown considerably. While researchers working in disparate regions around the globe will always maintain some level of regional separation, the study of human interactions with islands has proven a fruitful ground for global discussion. The editors of the volume demonstrate this by bringing together a collection of works discussing topics related to insularity and to building the fundamental theories needed to interpret the interactions between human societies and island environments. The diverse and globally representative group of authors discuss one of the most central topics associated with islands—sustainability.

Peoples of the past usually transformed the environments in which they settled. They likely did so based on perceived needs or a desire to shape their new homes into something that resembled the places from which they originated. This process often resulted in significant alteration to local environments and, in some cases, this included environmental degradation. The results of these interactions are truly evident on islands which, due to environmental circumscription and uniquely evolved ecologies, were especially susceptible to degradation by humans and their imported biotas of plants and animals. For much of the history of the archaeological study of islands, authors have chosen to discuss island colonisation and environmental alteration in terms of destruction, collapse and abandonment. The authors of this volume, however, choose to shift their focus toward the study of the persistence, resilience and the sustainability of island cultures of the past.

The collective strength of the volume comes from the authors’ willingness to reframe their perspectives to consider the incredible achievements of island societies despite the limitations, perturbations or changes that existed in a particular island context. To this end, the volume begins with a Foreword by Victor Thompson urging readers to recognise the need to understand human–island interaction in deep time and with reference to the socioecological systems that worked to promote sustainability. This establishes the tone of the book as the authors collectively work to dispel the polarising and romanticised narratives of survival and collapse employed by researchers and authors of the past. They work to put to rest the tired myths of the ‘noble savage’ and ‘homo devastans’ as each of these antiquated extremes is inaccurate and often a tool through which the agency of past human societies is denied (Chapter 1). Instead, the authors take a middle-of-the-road approach grounded in the archaeology of individual island-dwelling societies and the common practices that accompany island colonisation and life. In an almost Boasian manner, the authors of individual chapters of the book then attempt to interpret the unique human-environmental history of the island or island group in which their studies are based. While no chapter attempts to interpret another, the authors find common ground in their theoretical orientations. They collectively agree that cases of collapse should not be seen as foreshadowing the future of humanity. Rather, they represent instances of individual circumstance and decision making.

The marginality of some islands has been greatly overstated in past interpretations. Archaeological data, including shellfish size, demonstrate that 13 000 years of human persistence through a form of adaptive sustainability was masked by recent alterations to the environment of the Channel Islands of California (Chapter 2). This idea of adaptability or socioecological flexibility is emphasised through cases such as the Ni-Vanuatu practice of kastom which demonstrates how dynamic cultural institutions can be instrumental in shaping human-managed environments (Chapter 5). The dynamic nature of socioecological environments is highlighted throughout the book as the recognition of the complexities of non-human and human variables in specific islands and island groups is presented. This is done through case studies that use archaeological data to elucidate the opportunities that past island environments offered populations (Chapter 10). Natural, or pre-human, baselines are rejected through archaeological evidence that demonstrates how island environments are a product of continual change at varying time scales and levels of human involvement (Chapter 4). Only the combined understanding of archaeological and ecological histories of a place can explain the intricacies of sustainability or the lack thereof. This is exemplified through documentation of settlement and abandonment cycles, environmental alterations, built environments and persistent places (Chapters 6, 7, 9 & 11).

The overarching goal of the volume is the rejection of simplistic narratives of collapse through careful interpretation of the archaeological record. While similar processes have taken place in the settlement of, persistence in, and the abandonment of islands around the world, each instance needs to be understood in its own cultural and environmental context. Through the framework of Historical Ecology, and other perspectives that allow for the interpretation of individual cases of archaeological persistence and sustainability, such as Resilience Theory, we can move away from the antiquated narratives of failure, impact and collapse that have stunted archaeological discourse (e.g. Chapter 3). The anthropogenic landscapes of Nan Madol (Micronesia) and Mound Key (Florida) illustrate this by demonstrating how built environments can encourage persistence and sustainability in very different contexts (Chapter 11).

Sustainability in ancient island societies will certainly stand as a forerunner to a paradigm shift that encourages focus on the deep-time analysis of human–island interaction and the use of diverse socioecological theory to study island sustainability. As more researchers concentrate on the study of past island societies, the precedent set in this volume will undoubtedly influence ongoing discourse. As such, I applaud the effort of the authors of this volume for their forward-thinking and agree that through an approach rooted in the archaeology of island sustainability we may hope to better our understanding of human societies of the past while offering hope for the future.