One rarely sees overviews of archaeology of the entire Pacific, for as Mike Carson rightly notes, most work is focused on individual island groups or regions such as Melanesia, Micronesia, or Polynesia. A Pacific overview is a huge undertaking that is difficult to cover in a book of this size. The book contains a great deal of interesting information and insights, impossible to discuss fully here.

Oceania encompasses Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and arguably, Australia—first settled 60,000–40,000 years ago by ancestors of the Australian aboriginal people and the Papuan speaking peoples of New Guinea and Near Oceania (the Bismarck and Solomon Island archipelagos), and then about 3,500 years ago by speakers of Austronesian languages that spread south out of Taiwan through the Philippines and Indonesia and into Oceania. Carson focuses here on the spread of Austronesians into Oceania. Unfortunately, there is no detailed look at the deep history of Australian-/Papuan-speaking peoples, even though they comprised the majority of Oceania's population at European contact.

One strength of the book is its look at sea-level and coastline changes during the last 5,000 years, Carson's “paleo-terrain approach.” Sea levels began dropping at 1100 BC, drawing down until about AD 100, leading to coastline expansion. Carson presents examples from many islands locating older sites based on understanding older shorelines.

Uniquely, Carson focuses on archaeological material culture “inventories.” Unlike well-known studies by Roger Green and Patrick Kirch—which draw on historical linguistics, soil cores, ethnology, and genetic research—this book does not present a strong multidisciplinary view. Carson touches on these sources, but he prioritizes pottery and selected archaeological traits—a very different approach to viewing Oceanic pasts that may make his overview open to criticism.

Much of Archaeology of Pacific Oceania outlines Carson's model of multistep movements of Austronesian people into the Pacific. He follows the “pottery trail” from Taiwan into the Philippines and Indonesia circa 2200–2000 BC. There, red-slipped pottery with dentate and circle stamping and lime-filled designs develop by 1800–1600 BC. Similar pottery appear circa 1500 BC in the Marianas in western Micronesia. Another spread out of Island Southeast Asia was into the Bismarck Archipelago of central Melanesia circa 1500–1300 BC, where dentate-stamped Lapita pottery and the proto-Oceanic language subgroup developed. Carson then discusses the spread of those peoples with Lapita pottery into unoccupied eastern Melanesia and western Polynesia from 1100 to 500 BC. He proposes expansion into eastern and central Micronesia at AD 100–500. From AD 500–1000 he suggests no spread into eastern Polynesia (the last major uninhabited islands). Instead, he argues that its settlement “now is accepted as AD 1000 for nearly all island groups” (p. 312). He frequently claims that his settlement chronology is “confidently” established.

I cannot speak for the Philippines and Indonesia, but after 50 years of work in Polynesia and Micronesia, I do not believe that dating is confidently established yet for initial Austronesian settlement of Belau or the Marianas, of central and eastern Micronesia, or of eastern Polynesia. There are differing hypotheses, and some suggest earlier dates in these areas. For example, in Belau (the Micronesian group nearest the Philippines), there are dates as early as 2500–2300 BC from soil cores with Cyrtosperma taro pollen and other evidence indicative of human farming. Also, most linguists and several archaeologists suggest that Proto-Oceanic speakers spread initially into eastern Micronesia at 1100–500 BC—not Carson's AD 100–500 range. There is earlier soil core evidence (pollen, forest disruption) on the high islands of Kosrae (700–200 BC) and Pohnpei (500–300 BC to AD 1), and earlier evidence of habitation on Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls (900–150 BC). I also disagree that all scholars accept a late, AD 1000 settlement of eastern Polynesia. There are many pre–AD 1000 sites in Hawai‘i, and pre–AD 1000 proxy evidence (pollen, increase of charcoal particles, rat bones). For example, there are a number of habitation sites along the windward side of O‘ahu that date in the AD 700–1000 range, and a few habitation and agricultural sites in optimal farming-fishing environments that suggest settlement in the AD 300–600 range. These data conflict with post–AD 1000 settlement claims. Similarly, there are pre–AD 1000 dates in central east Polynesia. More work is needed to establish settlement dates in these areas.

Interestingly, Carson proposes that subsistence was focused on restricted coastal resources before 1100 BC—a “shoreline oriented cultural tradition” (p. 370). Then, as sea-level drawdown formed more coastal plains circa 1100–500 BC, he suggests that subsistence became more generalized with increased reliance on farming. However, linguistic reconstructions of Proto-Oceanic (not reviewed in the book) suggest that at 1500–1100 BC, diets were focused on root crops (taro, yams), tree crops (breadfruit notably, bananas) and fishing—indicating that initial Austronesian settlers were farmers and fishermen. Carson's hypothesis bears analysis, but the farming-fishing focus hypothesis cannot currently be rejected.

In Chapters 13 and 14, Carson discusses the era after AD 1000. These years of Oceanic history are what fascinate many people—with the construction of Easter Island's statues, large Tahitian temples (marae), and fortified Maori villages (pā) in New Zealand; and the formation of small “kingdoms” in Hawai‘i, Tonga, Kosrae, and Pohnpei with capitals that include monumental architecture. Unfortunately, the book does not cover some of the major sites (particularly those of interest to non-Pacific specialists), and the narrative becomes difficult to follow. Issues with figures, many of which are neither relevant nor of good quality, also impact these chapters.

Overall, Carson's attempt at an overview of archaeology in the Pacific is laudable, but it has mixed results. The book's strength is his summary of the spread of Austronesians into Island Southeast Asia and the western fringes of Oceania, and paleoenvironment coastline changes. The chronology of Austronesian settlement in Micronesia and eastern Polynesia, however, is not yet conclusive. He also does not fully consider data from other disciplines, especially historical linguistics. Furthermore, the post–AD 1000 years need better discussion.