An international team of scientists has determined through DNA research on fossil remains of prehistoric horses that the animals drawn on rock walls actually lived in the area. The research supports the idea that prehistoric humans tried to portray their natural environment. The results have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One cave drawing that has particularly raised questions among researchers is that of a spotted horse in the cave in Pech-Merle in southern France. The drawing — which is between 25,000 and 26,000 years old — resembles a horse known today as the Appaloosa breed. However, many prehistorians believed that these Appaloosa horses did not exist in prehistoric times. The gene mutation responsible for the spotted coat would have developed much later.
Prehistorians therefore suggested that the drawings of spotted horses should have a symbolic or abstract meaning. Because the spots are both on and around the drawn horses, they were often associated with depictions of human dreams or visions of the animals. The drawing of the spotted horse in the cave of Pech-Merle supported the theory that prehistoric man not only depicted his natural environment, but was also able to make drawings that had a deeper abstract meaning.
Researchers have now used DNA from fossils to determine the coat color of 31 prehistoric horses. The gene that causes mottled skin was found in four DNA samples from the Pleistocene and two from the Bronze Age. The fossils come from both Western and Eastern Europe.
Natural
The other DNA samples examined were from brown, red and black horses. The DNA research has thus shown for the first time that all horse breeds depicted in prehistoric cave drawings in caves in southern France actually walked around at that time. From these conclusions, it seems very likely that prehistoric man made true-to-life images of what he saw in his own environment.
"This certainly applies to the cave drawings of wild horses, including those remarkable spotted specimens," says Michi Hofreiter, who is part of the research team as a biologist. "Perhaps such prehistoric drawings contain much less symbolism than we always thought."
Now that the riddle of the spotted horse in the Pech-Merle cave seems to have been solved, the researchers hope to be able to use the insights to better interpret other cave drawings. If prehistoric man recorded what he observed around him, the ancient works of art provide a valuable insight into what the physical environment of our distant ancestors looked like.
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