Islands in Time explores the ecological and cultural development of prehistoric island societies, considers the prehistory of the Mediterranean and offers an explanation of the effects of isolation on the development of human communities.

This study details the fundamental questions that are raised about colonization processes, the human impact on ecosystems, cultural development on islands, and the significance of inter-island and island-mainland interaction. Evidence is drawn from a broad range of Mediterranean islands, including Cyprus, Crete and the Cyclades, Malta, Lipari, Corsica and Sardinia. Developing a general theoretical model of island sociogeography, Islands in Time provides insight into the broader question of how island populations inter-relate with their environments.