Spotted horses, Pech-Merle
Cave, France.
Internet photo - Public domain.
Students of
rock art have learned to always be on the lookout for representations of rare
or extinct animals as a guide to their actual appearance. This is a case of a
cave painting of animals that were for some time thought to be imaginary or
symbolic, and now have been proven to be real.
"Prehistoric representations of
animals have the potential to provide first-hand insights into the physical
environment that humans encountered thousands of years ago and the phenotypic
appearance of the animals depicted. However, the motivation behind, and
therefore the degree of realism in, these depictions is hotly debated and it
has yet to be shown to what extent they have been executed in a naturalistic
manner. Neuropsychological explanations
include 'hyperimagery,' in which an internally generated image is perceived in
external space, whereas others have argued for shamanistic significance or
simply art for art's sake. Some paleontologists argue that cave paintings are a
reflection of the natural environment of humans at the time, but not all
researchers agree with this opinion." (Pruvost et.al. 2011:1)
In a
nutshell, the argument has been whether the animal depictions represent the
appearance of real animals, or whether they represent "spirit
animals" of some sort. As "spirit animals" their overall
appearance (shape, coat color, conformation, etc.) need not be considered as
representative of a real horse.
One animal
where these questions have been raised is the horse, specifically the
depictions of spotted horses.
Coat colors and patterns
of Paleolithic horses.
Internet photo - Public Domain.
Bay and Black horses,
Chauvet Cave, France.
Internet photo - Public Domain.
"Where animal species can be
confidently identified, horses are depicted at the majority of these sites.
With more than 1,250 documented depictions (~30% of all animal illustrations)
ranging from the Early Aurignacien of Chauvet to the Late Magdalenian (several
post-12-kyBP sites in France and Spain), and from the Iberian Peninsula to the
Ural mountains, horses are the most frequent of the more than 30 mammal species
depicted in European Upper Paleolithic cave art. Depictions are commonly in a
caricature form that slightly exaggerates the most typical 'horsey' features.
Although taken as a whole, images of
horses are often quite rudimentary in their execution, some detailed
representations, from both Western Europe and the Ural mountains, are realistic
enough to at least potentially represent the actual appearance of the animals
when alive. In these cases, attributes of coat color may also have been
depicted with deliberate naturalism, emphasizing colors and patterns that
characterized contemporary horses. For example, the brown and black horses
dominant at Lascaux and Chauvet, France, phenotypically match the extant coat
colors bay and black. However, the depictions in the cave of Pech-Merle,
France, dated to 24.7 kyBP, featuring spotted horses in a frieze that includes
hand outlines and abstract patterns of spots, have led prehistorians to argue
for more complex explanation for several reasons. First, the juxtaposition of
elements in this depiction raises the question of whether the spotted pattern
is in some way symbolic or abstract, and second, a spotted coat phenotype is,
at least by many researchers, considered unlikely for Paleolithic horses." (Pruvost et.al. 2011:2-3)
Spotted horses, Pech-Merle
Cave, France.
Internet photo - Public domain.
Most
researchers before now had considered a horse with a spotted coat to have been
improbable before domestication. Indeed, most non-domesticated wild animals
have coats that are relatively solid in color, often darker above and lighter
below. Now, a new genetic study has indicated that there was a strong genetic
possibility of spotted horses back in the Paleolithic period.
"Now, a new study of
prehistoric horse DNA concludes that spotted horses did indeed roam ancient
Europe, suggesting that early artists may have been reproducing what they saw
rather than creating imaginary creatures." (Balter 2011)
Bay horses, Lascaux Cave, France.
Internet photo - Public Domain.
Close-up of bay horse,
Lascaux Cave, France.
Internet photo - Public Domain.
Close-up of bay dun horse,
Lascaux Cave, France.
Internet photo - Public Domain.
"In a 2009 analysis of DNA from
the bones of nearly 90 ancient horses dated from about 12,000 to 1000 years
ago, researchers found genetic evidence for bay and black horse colors but not
sign of the spotted variety."
(Balter 2011) This led researchers to suggest that the spotted horses had been
imaginary, spiritual beings.
"But in a new paper published
online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the same team
reports finding that spotted horses did indeed exist around the time that cave
artists were doing their best work. The researchers, led by geneticists Arne
Ludwig of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin and
Michael Hofreiter of the University of York in the United Kingdom, analyzed DNA
from an older sample of 31 prehistoric horses from Siberia as well as Eastern
and Western Europe ranging from about 20,000 to 2200 years ago. They found that
18 of the horses were bay, seven were black, but six had a genetic variant -
called LP - that corresponds to leopardlike spotting in modern horses.
Moreover, out of 10 Western European horses estimated to be about 14,000 years
old, four had the LP genetic marker, suggesting that spotted horses were not
uncommon during the heyday of cave painting." (Balter 2011)
This is not
proof that the Pech Merle spotted horses were painted after real models, but it
is proof that they could have been.
NOTE:
Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for
public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public
domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner
will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should
read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Balter,
Michael
2011 Was the
Spotted Horse an Imaginary Creature?, November 7, 2011, Science Magazine,
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/11/was-spotted-horse-imaginary-creature
Pruvost,
Melanie, Rebecca Bellone, Norbert Benecke, Edson Sandoval-Castellanos, Michael
Cieslak, Tatyana Kuznetsove, Arturo Morales-Muniz, Terry O'Connor, Monica
Reissmann, Machael Hofreiter, and Arne Ludwig,
2011 Genotypes
of Predomestic Horses Match Phenotypes Painted in Paleolithic Works of Cave Art,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, Nov. 15,
2011.
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