Open AccessThis paper provides information on three aspects regarding the complexity of the archaeological site of Marroquíes (Jaén, Spain): 1) the composition of the population buried in rock-cut tombs and the different treatment that individuals experienced, especially in relation to their integration into multiple or collective burials and sometimes bones removal; 2) the composition of livestock and its diverse use in ritual; 3) the chronological frame of the burials as an essential step to develop (and especially support) any hypothesis about prehistoric populations, and to understand the changes that many bodies experienced along the period of worship that affected them. The available dates have shown that these strategies were developed primarily from the second half of the Third Millennium BC.