diff --git a/metadata_columns.go b/metadata_columns.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..27bb0a8a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metadata_columns.go
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+package iceberg
+
+// Reserved metadata column field IDs per the Iceberg spec.
+// These IDs must not be used by user-defined schema fields.
+const (
+	// RowIDFieldID is the reserved field ID for _row_id (v3+).
+	RowIDFieldID = 2147483540
+	// LastUpdatedSequenceNumberFieldID is the reserved field ID for _last_updated_sequence_number (v3+).
+	LastUpdatedSequenceNumberFieldID = 2147483539
+)
+
+// IsMetadataColumnID returns true if the field ID is reserved for a metadata column.
+func IsMetadataColumnID(fieldID int) bool {
+	return fieldID == RowIDFieldID || fieldID == LastUpdatedSequenceNumberFieldID
+}
diff --git a/table/metadata_builder_internal_test.go b/table/metadata_builder_internal_test.go
index 79cca000f..fc66936d0 100644
--- a/table/metadata_builder_internal_test.go
+++ b/table/metadata_builder_internal_test.go
@@ -1688,6 +1688,22 @@ func TestUnknownTypeValidation(t *testing.T) {
 		require.ErrorContains(t, err, "must be optional")
 	})
 
+	t.Run("ReservedFieldIDRowID", func(t *testing.T) {
+		schema := iceberg.NewSchema(1,
+			iceberg.NestedField{ID: iceberg.RowIDFieldID, Name: "bad_field", Type: iceberg.PrimitiveTypes.Int64},
+		)
+		err := checkSchemaCompatibility(schema, 3)
+		require.Error(t, err)
+		require.ErrorContains(t, err, "reserved metadata column ID")
+	})
+	t.Run("ReservedFieldIDLastUpdatedSeqNum", func(t *testing.T) {
+		schema := iceberg.NewSchema(1,
+			iceberg.NestedField{ID: iceberg.LastUpdatedSequenceNumberFieldID, Name: "bad_field", Type: iceberg.PrimitiveTypes.Int64},
+		)
+		err := checkSchemaCompatibility(schema, 3)
+		require.Error(t, err)
+		require.ErrorContains(t, err, "reserved metadata column ID")
+	})
 	t.Run("InvalidUnknownMapValue", func(t *testing.T) {
 		invalidSchema := iceberg.NewSchema(1,
 			iceberg.NestedField{ID: 2, Name: "invalid_map", Type: &iceberg.MapType{KeyID: 3, KeyType: iceberg.StringType{}, ValueID: 4, ValueType: iceberg.UnknownType{}, ValueRequired: true}, Required: false},
diff --git a/table/metadata_schema_compatibility.go b/table/metadata_schema_compatibility.go
index 1d3f76ee9..fdccc7fdb 100644
--- a/table/metadata_schema_compatibility.go
+++ b/table/metadata_schema_compatibility.go
@@ -95,6 +95,11 @@ func checkSchemaCompatibility(sc *iceberg.Schema, formatVersion int) error {
 			panic("invalid schema: field with id " + strconv.Itoa(field.ID) + " not found, this is a bug, please report.")
 		}
 
+		if iceberg.IsMetadataColumnID(field.ID) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("%w: field '%s' uses reserved metadata column ID %d",
+				iceberg.ErrInvalidSchema, colName, field.ID)
+		}
+
 		minFormatVersion := minFormatVersionForType(field.Type)
 		if formatVersion < minFormatVersion {
 			problems = append(problems, IncompatibleField{