Radiocarbon dating results from the Batanes archaeological project (2002–2004) are analysed and compared with similar data from northern Luzon. It is argued that the reef-shell and pottery residue ages are not as reliable as dates on charcoal, and that the latter show a relatively late colonization of the Batanes, beginning about 800 BC on charcoal ages. The two successive early phases originally proposed, Sunget and Naidi, are amalgamated into a single early period. As early neolithic sites in northern Luzon are significantly older, beginning about 1700 BC on charcoal dates, early neolithic movement from Taiwan might have bypassed the Batanes. Early Batanes material culture exhibits similarities with types and assemblages in both Taiwan and northern Luzon, and linguistic data cannot determine whether the conservative Batanic languages reflect colonisation earlier than settlement of Luzon, or isolation in the Batanes. Consideration of the geography of island Southeast Asia and of the general pattern of late Holocene island colonization does not offer support to simple steppingstone models of neolithic dispersal. At least two phases of dispersal, one earlier from the southwest, and one later from the northeast, can be hypothesized. Their potential existence raises questions about the nature and interaction of late Holocene populations in the region, suggesting that neolithic cultural inventories may have been more partitioned, and relations more reticulate, than is sometimes envisaged. As expansion of farming is relatively poorly documented, its common demographic impact probably does not account for rapid neolithic expansion. The evolution of maritime technology and climatic change, especially around 2000 BC, suggest alternative avenues for further investigation of late Holocene movements in island Southeast Asia.
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