El aprovechamiento de recursos vegetales en los niveles neolíticos del yacimiento de Los Murciélagos (Zuheros, Córdoba)

The intensification in the use of plants is one of the more significant characteristics of the Neolithic economy. In this paper, this topic is considered by means of the archaeobotanical analysis of plant charred remains and the use-wear analysis of lithic tools from the Neolithic levels of Los Murcielagos cave (Zuheros, Cordoba). The cultivation of diferent types of wheats (T. monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. aestivum, T. durum) and barley (Hordeum sativum) and the harvesting of acorns (Quercus sp.) and wild olives (Olea europaea subs, oleaster) is attested. The technical processes on plants are reconstructed resorting to ethnographic information, experimentation and use-wear analysis of stone tools. During the Neolithic period, at this site, sickles were made inserting lithic elements obliquely in curved shafts. No lithic tool used for technological activities on plants (basketry, ropes, etc.) was recognized. This is probably due to the development of most of these technical activities without tools or with wooden tools, and, perhaps, to the fact that some plant collecting activities (i.e. phragmites) could had been carried out with the same sickles used for harvesting cereals. PALABRAS CLAVE: Arqueobotanica, Agricultura, Recoleccion, Etnoarqueologia, Arqueologia experimental, Neolitico, Andalucia.