B

eginning about 29,000

years ago, people living

near what is now Pech

Merle, France, walked

deep into a cave and

painted their world on the

walls. Together with numerous handprints, they created more than

800 distinct images, including mammoths, bison, aurochs, a bear---and

horses drawn with dark outlines fi lled in with numerous round black

spots, similar to the leopard-spotted horses we see today.

Sp t s

Seeing

For as long as people

have depicted horses in art,

we’ve been showing them

with spots.

By Laurie Bonner

1047: From “Les quatre Cavaliers.

Apoc. VI” (“The Four Horsemen of the

Apocalypse VI”), an illustration from the

book The Beatus of Facundus

Artist: Facundus, for Ferdinand I and

Queen Sancha

About 29,000 years ago:

Paintings of spotted horses and human

HEIN hands at the Pech Merle cave in France

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70 EQUUS 498 AUTUMN 2019