Task 1 - Bats Cave, neolithic

1. BATS CAVE
Gema Ortiz de la Guía 2BachE

2. Index
● LOCATION
● CLIMATE
● CURIOSITIES ABOUT RELIEF
● NEOLITHIC PERIOD
● CURIOSITIES
● BIBLIOGRAPHY

3. Location
It´s located about 4km
from Zuheros and on top
of Cerro de los
Murciélagos.The Bats
Cave has this name after
the many bats that live
there. Archaeologically
known in Europe, is one
of the most important
Neolithic sites in
Andalusia and the first
Upper Paleolithic art
found in this community.
Zuheros

4. Climate
10,000 years ago the climate became warmer and there
were changes in the flora and fauna.

5. Curiosities about Relief
After one or more natural disasters, limestones were
fractured When water flows through these fractures,
calcium bicarbonate dissolves very readily and galleries
expand with the flow of water and air passes through
them.
But the Bats Cave is still alive: stalactites and
stalagmites are still forming, like many millions of years
ago, which resulted in the present state of the Cave.

7. Neolithic Period
The group of people who settled down in the
cave about 6,000 years ago lived near the
entrance, where they reached the sunlight.
They made bonfires to keep warm and to
prepare food. They elaborated the instruments
they carried out in their daily activities: they
made flint knives for cutting, scrapers, bone-working,
etc. Certain polished stones for axes
and adzes with which they worked wood and
other materials, etc have been found.
Archaeologists also found the body of a man
who was kept in a position that indicates a
burial: the skeleton is medium-bodied on his
back and legs bent to the right, the body was
placed there with care.

8. They modeled clay to make pottery decorated with based incisions,
impressions, using the same clay beads, the most prominent of all “almagra”
pottery. This pottery is named after the layer of red pigment, which covers
the outer surface of the vessel and, sometimes, the inner one too

9. But the inhabitants of the cave not only
produced useful and vessels for work and
storage, but also many manufactured objects
that adorned as beads and pendants obtained
by drilling sea shells, boar tusks and other
animals. They also made bracelets or anklets
in blunt stones such as marble, calcite, slate
and seashells.
Homo sapiens left his legacy, as well as useful
stone engravings on the walls with paintings of
different animals (horses, deer…) and other figures
of about 18,000 years ago.
Later other human groups settled down in the
cave. They had a more sophisticated culture during
the Chalcolithic (remains of bracelets, bowls, etc).
The Bronze Age is also represented among the
remains found in the cave.

10. Curiosities
❖ Inside the cave remnants of hunting and the lithic
industry, called Mousterian, developed by
Neanderthals, were also found.
❖ The cave has been declared of cultural interest, and
on 23th of November of 2001 the Junta of Andalusia
declared its 32 hectares as a natural monument.
❖ The first time the cave was explored was in 1938
❖ Thanks to the discoveries in this cave, they know that
men who inhabited the cave grew cereals and raised
domestic animals, (In the Neolithic period, when the
agriculture appeared).
❖ In this cave there were a lot of bats, so, people go into
the cave to remove bat guano, a very popular natural
fertilizer.

11. Sources
http://www.zuheros.es/cueva-de-los-murcielagos
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_de_los_Murci%C3%A9lagos
http://www.cpoyato.com/Subbetica/Zuheros/indexcueva.html
http://arqueologiasinlimites.blogspot.com.es/2010/05/la-cueva-de-los-murcielagos-
zuheros.html
http://www.historialia.com/detalle/133/la-cueva-de-los-murcielagos-zuheros-
cordoba-neolitico