Island archaeology is a well-established field within the wider discipline, but African contributions to it remain scarce. The Canary Islands are unusual in the broader African context for their relatively long history of occupation (~2000 years) and the intensity with which archaeological research has been, and is, undertaken there. Much of that research, however, has focused on specifically Canarian issues, including efforts to demonstrate connections between the islands’ initial settlement and the Classical Mediterranean world. Relatively little of it has been conducted within the broader comparative framework that an island archaeology perspective provides. Additionally, much of the Canarian literature is not directly accessible to non-Hispanophones. In response, I synthesize what is currently known about the archaeology of the Canary Islands, focusing on determining when, how, and by whom they were first settled; the impacts of human settlement on their environments; inter-island variability in precolonial subsistence, social, and political trajectories; and the record left by European contact and subsequent colonization, which began in the 14th century AD. As well as pointing to further opportunities for research within the archipelago, I simultaneously map out several areas where archaeological work there could contribute to wider debates in island archaeology as a whole.

岛屿考古学是更广泛学科中一个成熟的领域，但非洲对此的贡献仍然很少。加那利群岛因其相对较长的占领历史（约 2000 年）以及那里过去和现在进行的考古研究的强度而在更广泛的非洲背景中显得不同寻常。然而，大部分研究都集中在加那利群岛的具体问题上，包括努力证明群岛的最初定居点与古典地中海世界之间的联系。其中相对较少是在岛屿考古学视角提供的更广泛的比较框架内进行的。此外，许多加那利文学对于非西班牙裔人来说是无法直接接触到的。作为回应，我综合了目前对加那利群岛考古学的了解，重点是确定他们首次定居的时间、方式和人员；人类住区对其环境的影响；前殖民时期生存、社会和政治轨迹的岛屿间差异；以及公元 14 世纪开始的欧洲接触和随后的殖民留下的记录。除了指出群岛内进一步的研究机会外，我还同时指出了考古工作可以为整个岛屿考古学更广泛的辩论做出贡献的几个领域。