Caverna delle Arene Candide. Scavi 1997-2012. Appunti sul Neolitico

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This paper reports the excavation conducted sporadically between 1997 and 2012 in a marginal recess of the Arene Candide Cave, where the numerous digs undertaken in the site since 1876 had spared most of the strata of the Early Neolithic and of the Square Mouthed Pottery 1 culture. The careful fieldwork, comprehensive refitting of the pottery, technological observations and 46 radiocarbon datings of short-lived samples have allowed us to recognize five cultural phases of the Early Neolithic. The AC1A phase (≈ 5780-5650 BC) marks the earliest Neolithic occupation of the cave by seafaring settlers arriving in an area with minimal Mesolithic Castelnovian evidence. Their pottery is mainly decorated by sillons d'impressions forming complex motifs, such as zig-zags, chevrons and panels, on most of the surface of the vessel, similar to those of the Peiro Signado site in Languedoc. The addition of alignments of bifid, digital and punched impressions, similar to those of Pendimoun 1A, marks the subsequent AC1B phase, which lasts until about 5550 BC. The AC2A phase sees the abandonment of sillons d'impressions decoration, and the prevalence of decoration by shell-edge impressions of Cardial Tyrrhenian style (or ceramica a line dentellate). It is a short-lived phase, perhaps partly contemporary with AC1B, ending by 5500 BC. It is not clear whether or not there is continuity with the subsequent AC2B phase, which belongs to the Provençal Cardial cultural aspect and begins after 5500 BC. Around 5250 it changes into AC3 with the appearance of new decorative motifs (i.e. "rocker"), elements of the Linear Pottery (Ceramica Lineare) Culture of central Italy and the important innovation of the use of crushed calcite in the ceramic temper. AC3 ends before the end of the millennium and with it ends the sequence of the Impressa and Cardial cultures widespread in the western Mediterranean. The next phase of the study will address the question whether AC3 is directly followed by the Square Mouthed Pottery Culture or whether there is an intermediate pre-Square Mouthed Pottery episode of occupation influenced by the Pò Plain cultures of Vhò and Fiorano, which for now we call VBQ0 (SMP0). The analysis of thirty potsherds showed a quite good state of lipid preservation, which is relatively rare in Mediterranean contexts and probably due to the very stable temperature and humidity conditions in the cave. The presence is attested of dairy products, of sheep fat and -remarkably- of beeswax. The cooking of animal fats as well as the application of animal fats onto the still hot surfaces of pottery during manufacturing have also been recognized. The excavation also yielded scattered human bones of infants, mainly from SMP1 layers, which add to the important assemblage of funerary material from the site.

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