DEHESILLA CAVE: NEW STRATIGRAPHICAL DATA, MATERIALS AND RADIOCARBON DATES (AREA C006 AND AN UPDATE OF ITS NEOLITHIC SEQUENCE

This article presents the data from a new excavation area -called C006- opened in 2017 inside the Dehesilla Cave. For the first time, one of the innermost chambers of the cave -Room 4- is excavated. The area shows a stratigraphical sequence dating from the Early to the Late Neolithic, and covered by a thick sheet of carbonate flowstone. This paper presents the stratigraphic data, the ceramic and lithic materials and radiocarbon dates. It also puts forward a systematic comparison between the new data and that previously known from C003, an excavation area located near the entrance to the cavity. This approach enables us to identify several different empirical patterns underlying the material record, and to explore both chronocultural and contextual questions surrounding the differential activities and uses of the two areas of the cave.