Book Review Ancient Ryukyu: An Archaeological Study of Island Communities Richard Pearson University of Hawai‘i Press, 2013 416 pages. ISBN 978-0-8248-3712-9 The above subtitle places this book in a theoretical realm of worldwide significance: how islands are colonized, and how populations are maintained in restricted ecologies and interact with other peoples over the water in “constantly changing configurations” (p. 4). Fifty years of research have gone into this book, beginning with his archaeological fieldwork in Okinawa as a graduate student. Three years after attaining his doctorate, he published his first book on the subject (Pearson 1969), then continued writing on Ryukyu trade and political development. Ancient Ryukyu updates and expands his previous works in important ways and provides a much fuller view of non-Japanese lifestyles throughout the centuries preceding the Satsuma take-over of the Ryukyus in 1609. The book is organized chronologically, from the Palaeolithic period through the early Ryukyu Kingdom. The final “Discussion and Conclusion” is very useful: pulling out points on distinctive aspects of Ryukyu inhabitation of theoretical interest, providing snapshots of human geography through the periods, offering questions and implications for further research, and comparing Ryukyu archaeology with that of the Mediterranean and Caribbean. An appendix on the chronology of trade ceramics—beginning with Lelang earthenware from the Late Han Dynasty commandery on the Korean Peninsula through the 16th century—is an extremely valuable addition (see also Table 8.2). Pearson gradually disabuses us of our preconceptions: there seems not to have been population continuity from the Minatogawa human remains dating to ca. 18,000 years ago (p. 43); instead, the Ryukyus were colonized post-Palaeolithic by Jomon individuals from Kyushu during the Initial Shell mound period (7000–2000 BC). Nevertheless, the Early and Middle Shell mound periods (ca. 2000–1000 BC, 1000–300 BC) developed differently from Jomon: there was no horticulture, and agriculture was not introduced until ca. 8-10th centuries AD in the late Late Shell mound period (300 BC–AD 1050). Interestingly, iron was introduced earlier (ca. AD 500) than agriculture, but local metallurgy was later: late 12th century for iron-working, and 13–14th century for copper/bronze-working.