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Torch-lit limestone chamber inside the Cueva de los Murciélagos cave near Zuheros, Córdoba province, rough karst walls with faint dark red ochre and black schematic figures barely visible in shadow, a narrow rocky passage receding into darkness

Cueva de los Murciélagos, Zuheros: A Neolithic Sanctuary

Inside Zuheros's Cueva de los Murciélagos, researchers traced five Neolithic hearths and opium poppy seeds called the oldest such find then known in Iberia.

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Art history background with eight years writing interpretive content on Córdoba's Caliphal heritage.

Updated Published
Prehistoric & Iberianbefore 206 BCE
The Cueva de los Murciélagos above Zuheros is not the 'mummy cave' known for ancient esparto sandals; that is a different site, in Granada province. This cave, cut into Córdoba's Sierras Subbéticas, held five small ritual hearths and forty-nine opium poppy seeds that a 2006 academic reassessment reads as evidence of a Neolithic sanctuary, not simply a home.
Prehistoric & Iberianbefore 206 BCE
Earliest dated Neolithic
4480 BC
Radiocarbon start of Neolithic A phase[8]
Opium poppy hearth find
49 seeds
Papaver somniferum seeds in one hearth[13]
Protected natural area
32.46 ha
Total protected Monumento Natural surface[23]

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A Cave in the Sierras Subbéticas, Not the One You're Thinking Of

The cave opens on the northern slope of the Macizo de Cabra, part of the karstic Sierras Subbéticas in southeastern Córdoba province.[1] Zuheros, one of the Pueblos Blancos villages near Córdoba, sits at the foot of that same massif. Most visitors stop in the village; the cave sits higher up the same slope, past where the streets end.
It is often confused online with a same-named 'mummy cave.' The Cueva de los Murciélagos de Zuheros has no connection to the Cueva de los Murciélagos de Albuñol, a Granada-province site known for its ancient esparto sandals. They share a name and little else.

Excavators have documented a stratigraphy running from the Middle Paleolithic through the Neolithic to the Roman period:[2]

  • Middle Paleolithic occupation layers
  • Levels from the end of the Upper Paleolithic
  • An extensively represented Neolithic sequence
  • Copper Age and Bronze Age material
  • Late Roman-period deposits
That depth is why the Junta de Andalucía's own heritage record calls the cave one of Andalusia's most important Neolithic sites, and the first in the region with Upper Paleolithic-era art, the basis for its declaration as a Bien de Interés Cultural.[3]

From a 1969 Dig to a 2006 Reinterpretation

An excavation in 1969 was directed by Dra. Ana María Muñoz Amilibia together with Ana María Vicent Zaragoza.[4] New campaigns followed in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 2002, opening the cave's 'Pasillo' sector and led by one of the archaeologists behind the paper that would later reframe the whole site.[5]
That paper, published in 2006 in the journal SPAL, is titled plainly Habitat and Sanctuary during the Early Neolithic.[6] Its argument cuts against decades of prior scholarship: earlier researchers, working from the 1969 dig, had used the Zuheros cave as a reference site for the Andalusian Middle Neolithic. The radiocarbon-dated stratigraphy instead places the bulk of the earliest farming occupation in the Early Neolithic, non-Cardial phase.[7]
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The excavators split the Neolithic sequence into three ceramic-defined blocks, each corroborated by radiocarbon dates on hearth charcoal:

  • Neolithic A: roughly 4480 to 3950 BC[8]
  • Neolithic B: roughly 3850 to 3620 BC[9]
  • Neolithic C: roughly 3430 to 3130 BC[10]
These are uncalibrated laboratory determinations, not calendar dates in the strict sense. The sequence itself is what let excavators separate three distinct occupation phases rather than one blurred Neolithic layer.

Five Hearths and Forty-Nine Poppy Seeds

Across the 1991, 1993 and 2002 campaigns, excavators documented five small hearths in the earliest Neolithic A levels: modest, single-use fire pits rather than a permanent domestic hearth. Notably, all five sat disassociated from any occupation floor, not part of a living surface anyone was standing on day to day.[11]
Recovering what burned in them took a specific method. Every stratigraphic unit's sediment, 100% of it, was processed through water-tank flotation using two mesh sizes: one for the bulk sediment, and a finer 0.25 mm mesh for what floated free, charcoal, seeds, microfauna, fragments too small to see during normal excavation.[12]
One hearth, excavated in 1991 in level 8-b, grid A-0-1, produced 49 seeds of Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, alongside a single indeterminate cereal grain and a Silene sp. seed.[13] The excavators described the poppy seeds, at the time of their 2006 report, as the oldest such remains then known in the Iberian Peninsula.[14]
A small organic fragment found in the same hearth was interpreted by the excavators as a piece of vomit, whose composition would include gastric juices.[15] Read together with the poppy seeds, it points toward deliberate ingestion of the plant's latex rather than incidental cooking waste.

Idols in Clay, Figures on Stone

The excavators didn't stop at hearths. A ceramic vessel recovered from the site, catalogued as piece nº 6, carries a painted schematic face: eyebrows, a nose, eyes rendered as two concentric circles.[16] It's one of several symbolic ceramics that echo the cave's painted schematic idols on the walls.
That face has a counterpart on the cave wall. In the Corredor de las Pinturas, a painted figure known as the ídolo-placa was first published by Bernier and Fortea in 1968-69, who, working from the evidence then available, attributed it to the Bronze Age.[17]
The Panel de las Cabras, a separate set of schematic caprid figures in the Corredor de las Pinturas, was likewise first attributed to the Bronze Age. Marcos Pous reassigned that panel to the Neolithic in 1977, after new excavations in the Sala de los Estratos of Cueva Chica turned up stratified evidence the earlier attribution hadn't accounted for.[18] A separate schematic quadruped, painted in red, sits a few centimetres from the ídolo-placa on another panel of the same corridor; no source checked assigns it a reworked date.
None of this figurative art has been directly dated. No direct dating of the pigment is reported; the Neolithic attribution for the painted schematic figures rests on ceramic parallels, like the vessel's painted face, and on proximity to the radiocarbon-dated hearths, not on dating the paint.
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The cave also holds separate rock art attributed to the Upper Paleolithic. One cataloguing source describes it as engravings, distinguishing it from the later Neolithic paintings, though not every account agrees on exactly what form that earlier art takes.[19]
For broader context on Córdoba province's prehistoric and Roman-era finds, the Archaeological Museum of Córdoba situates this cave's era within the region's wider excavation record.

A Protected Site, Still Being Read

In 1938, a human skeleton and grave goods were found inside a natural rock pool in the cave, a find Andalusia's regional tourism board reads as a deliberate burial.[20] A local heritage account identifies the skeleton as a woman's, buried in a fetal position.[21]
The cave's formal protections came later and in two separate steps: a Bien de Interés Cultural declaration in 1995, and a Monumento Natural designation in 2001.[22]

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The Monumento Natural designation protects 32.46 hectares.[23]
Zuheros already has its 'most beautiful village in Spain' listing to bring people up the hill for the castle and the white streets. The cave itself makes its own, separate case: a hearth that burned once and a chronology that took decades to reargue. For more of Córdoba province's buried history, see the pre-Roman walls found near Córdoba. Cueva del Ángel near Lucena reaches much further back, into the Middle Pleistocene: its open-air site is far older than anything in this cave.

Frequently asked questions

How old are the Neolithic remains in the Cueva de los Murciélagos de Zuheros?
The earliest dated Neolithic occupation, Neolithic A, runs from roughly 4480 to 3950 BC on uncalibrated radiocarbon dates from hearth charcoal.[8] Two later ceramic-defined phases, Neolithic B and C, extend the sequence down to around 3130 BC.[10]

Who excavated the Cueva de los Murciélagos de Zuheros, and when?
Dra. Ana María Muñoz Amilibia and Ana María Vicent Zaragoza led an excavation in 1969.[4] Further campaigns in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 2002 opened the cave's Pasillo sector and produced the radiocarbon dates and finds behind the 2006 'habitat and sanctuary' reassessment.[5]

What was found inside the Cueva de los Murciélagos de Zuheros?
Excavators recovered five small ritual hearths, one with 49 opium poppy seeds;[13] painted schematic wall figures including an ídolo-placa; symbolic ceramics with painted faces; and a 1938 human burial in a natural rock pool.[20]

Why do archaeologists think part of the cave was used as a Neolithic sanctuary rather than only a home?
The 2006 SPAL paper's argument turns on the hearths: small, single-use, and disassociated from any occupation floor, unlike a domestic fireplace.[11] Combined with the poppy seeds and a probable vomit residue in the same hearth, the excavators read the pattern as ritual use, not routine cooking.[15]

What is the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) find in the Cueva de los Murciélagos?
A single Neolithic hearth held 49 Papaver somniferum seeds,[13] described by the excavators as the oldest such find then known in the Iberian Peninsula.[14] A nearby organic fragment, interpreted as possible vomit residue, adds weight to a ritual-ingestion reading rather than food waste.[15]

Is the Cueva de los Murciélagos a protected heritage site?
Yes. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 1995 and a Monumento Natural in 2001, the latter covering 32.46 hectares of protected surface.[22][23]

Does the cave have Paleolithic rock art, or is all the art Neolithic?
Both. The painted schematic figures, including the ídolo-placa and the Panel de las Cabras' caprid figures reassigned to the Neolithic in 1977, are Neolithic-and-later; a separate red-painted quadruped nearby is left undated by the source. The cave also preserves separate art attributed to the Upper Paleolithic, described by one cataloguing source as engravings rather than paintings.[19]

Sources

23 references Show
  1. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “en la vertiente N del Macizo de Cabra, perteneciente a las Sierras Subbéticas cordobesas, en el SE de la provincia de Córdoba”

  2. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “una potente estratigrafía que parte de los momentos plenos del Paleolítico Medio, algunos niveles correspondientes a finales del Paleolítico Superior, Neolítico”

  3. Junta de Andalucía (opens in a new tab)

    “Esta cueva constituye en Andalucía un yacimiento Neolítico importantísimo y el primero con arte del Paleolítico Superior, lo que ha propiciado su declaración como Bien de Interés Cultural.”

  4. um.es (opens in a new tab)

    “La campaña de excavación en la Cueva de los Murciélagos (Zuheros, Córdoba) tuvo lugar en el año 1969, bajo la dirección de la Dra. Muñoz Amilibia y Ana María Vicent Zaragoza.”

  5. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “Esta cueva ha sido objeto en 1990, 1991, 1993 y 2002 de nuevos trabajos arqueológicos, dirigidos por uno de los firmantes”

  6. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “LA CUEVA DE LOS MURCIÉLAGOS DE ZUHEROS (CÓRDOBA): HÁBITAT Y SANTUARIO DURANTE EL NEOLÍTICO ANTIGUO. HOGARES, PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM Y SIMBOLISMO”

  7. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “representa al Neolítico Antiguo, no cardial, en Andalucía, adjudicación plenamente aceptada ya por diferentes investigad”

  8. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “El primero de ellos se sitúa entre el 4.480±130 y el 3.950±120 a.C. (I-17.772 e I-17.775, carbón)”

  9. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “El Neolítico B, queda comprendido entre el 3.850 ± 120 y el 3.620 ± 110 a.C.”

  10. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “los niveles del Neolítico C han arrojado unas fechas entre el 3.430 ± 110 y el 3.130 ± 120 a.C. (I-17.762 e I-17.761), finales del V y comienzo del IV milenios cal. a.C.”

  11. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “Por otra parte, los cinco hogares están disociados de cualquier tipo de suelo de ocupación”

  12. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “El 100% del sedimento de cada U.S. fue sometido a flotación, mediante el sistema de tanque, empleándose dos tipos de malla, una doble de 1 mm de luz para el sedimento, y otra de 0'25 mm para la recogida de las flotaciones.”

  13. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “una semilla de Silene sp . (alcaducea o colleja), 49 semillas de Papaver”

  14. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “tratándose, por momento, de los restos más antiguos presentes en la Península Ibérica.”

  15. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “a un trozo de vómito, en cuyo caso entrarían en su composición los jugos gástricos.”

  16. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “La primera de ellas (Fig. 2, A, nº 6) muestra la representación de cejas, nariz y ojos –éstos mediante dos círculos concéntricos–”

  17. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “el "ídolo" dado a conocer hace ya décadas por Bernier y Fortea (1968-69) como "ídolo-placa", que fue adjudicado al entonces denominado Bronce I hispano.”

  18. institucional.us.es (opens in a new tab)

    “pasó a adjudicarse al Neolítico (Marcos Pous 1977) tras los resultados de las excavaciones realizadas en la "Sala de los Estratos" de la Cueva Chica.”

  19. prehistour.eu (opens in a new tab)

    “Son de gran importancia las representaciones de íbices y los restos humanos del Neolítico, así como los grabados del Paleolítico Superior.”

  20. andalucia.org (opens in a new tab)

    “Quizás el hallazgo más impresionante se dio en 1938, cuando se hallaron los restos fosilizados de un cuerpo humano y su ajuar en un gour, con lo que se ha deducido que fue un enterramiento.”

  21. subbeticahoy.com (opens in a new tab)

    “en 1938 se encontró el esqueleto de una mujer enterrada en posición fetal, un descubrimiento que refuerza la importancia histórica del lugar.”

  22. cuevasturisticas.es (opens in a new tab)

    “en 1995, la Cueva de los Murciélagos fue declarada Bien de Interés Cultural y, en 2001, Monumento Natural.”

  23. Junta de Andalucía (opens in a new tab)

    “Superficie Total 32,46 ha.”