Pe?acalera (Obejo, Crdoba). Biography of a Copper Age Burial Cave with Organic Remains

The funerary practices of the 4th and 3rd millennia cal Bc re marked by the widespread use of megalithic architecture in most of the Iberian Peninsula, alongside major social transformations taking place during the Copper Age. At the same time, we find a proliferation of collective burials in natural caves located in mountainous areas of southern Iberia, some of which also share the typical uses of megalithic chambers. In this paper, we present the unusual case of Penacalera, in Obejo, Cordoba province, a small burial cave located in a prominent rocky outcrop in the Sierra Morena massif, discovered in 2014. The funerary context includes the skeletal remains of at least five human individuals, associated with grave goods such as ceramic vessels, and organic material in a remarkable state of preservation, especially cork bark and some textile fragments. The analysis of the radiocarbon dates suggests two separate phases of use, one during the third quarter of the 4th and the other in the middle of the 3rd millennia cal Bc.