Abstract
Archaeologists often argue whether Paleolithic works of art, cave paintings in particular, constitute reflections of the natural environment of humans at the time. They also debate the extent to which these paintings actually contain creative artistic expression, reflect the phenotypic variation of the surrounding environment, or focus on rare phenotypes. The famous paintings "The Dappled Horses of Pech-Merle," depicting spotted horses on the walls of a cave in Pech-Merle, France, date back ~25,000 y, but the coat pattern portrayed in these paintings is remarkably similar to a pattern known as "leopard" in modern horses. We have genotyped nine coat-color loci in 31 predomestic horses from Siberia, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Iberian Peninsula. Eighteen horses had bay coat color, seven were black, and six shared an allele associated with the leopard complex spotting (LP), representing the only spotted phenotype that has been discovered in wild, predomestic horses thus far. LP was detected in four Pleistocene and two Copper Age samples from Western and Eastern Europe, respectively. In contrast, this phenotype was absent from predomestic Siberian horses. Thus, all horse color phenotypes that seem to be distinguishable in cave paintings have now been found to exist in prehistoric horse populations, suggesting that cave paintings of this species represent remarkably realistic depictions of the animals shown. This finding lends support to hypotheses arguing that cave paintings might have contained less of a symbolic or transcendental connotation than often assumed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 18626-18630 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Volume | 108 |
| Issue number | 46 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 15 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Keywords
- Ancient DNA
- Franco-Cantabrian region
- Leopard complex spotting
- Single nucleotide polymorphism
- Transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M1
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General
Cite this
Genotypes of predomestic horses match phenotypes painted in Paleolithic works of cave art. / Pruvost, Melanie; Bellone, Rebecca; Benecke, Norbert; Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson; Cieslak, Michael; Kuznetsova, Tatyana; Morales-Munĩz, Arturo; O'Connor, Terry; Reissmann, Monika; Hofreiter, Michael; Ludwig, Arne.
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 108, No. 46, 15.11.2011, p. 18626-18630.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Genotypes of predomestic horses match phenotypes painted in Paleolithic works of cave art
AU - Pruvost, Melanie
AU - Bellone, Rebecca
AU - Benecke, Norbert
AU - Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson
AU - Cieslak, Michael
AU - Kuznetsova, Tatyana
AU - Morales-Munĩz, Arturo
AU - O'Connor, Terry
AU - Reissmann, Monika
AU - Hofreiter, Michael
AU - Ludwig, Arne
PY - 2011/11/15
Y1 - 2011/11/15
N2 - Archaeologists often argue whether Paleolithic works of art, cave paintings in particular, constitute reflections of the natural environment of humans at the time. They also debate the extent to which these paintings actually contain creative artistic expression, reflect the phenotypic variation of the surrounding environment, or focus on rare phenotypes. The famous paintings "The Dappled Horses of Pech-Merle," depicting spotted horses on the walls of a cave in Pech-Merle, France, date back ~25,000 y, but the coat pattern portrayed in these paintings is remarkably similar to a pattern known as "leopard" in modern horses. We have genotyped nine coat-color loci in 31 predomestic horses from Siberia, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Iberian Peninsula. Eighteen horses had bay coat color, seven were black, and six shared an allele associated with the leopard complex spotting (LP), representing the only spotted phenotype that has been discovered in wild, predomestic horses thus far. LP was detected in four Pleistocene and two Copper Age samples from Western and Eastern Europe, respectively. In contrast, this phenotype was absent from predomestic Siberian horses. Thus, all horse color phenotypes that seem to be distinguishable in cave paintings have now been found to exist in prehistoric horse populations, suggesting that cave paintings of this species represent remarkably realistic depictions of the animals shown. This finding lends support to hypotheses arguing that cave paintings might have contained less of a symbolic or transcendental connotation than often assumed.
AB - Archaeologists often argue whether Paleolithic works of art, cave paintings in particular, constitute reflections of the natural environment of humans at the time. They also debate the extent to which these paintings actually contain creative artistic expression, reflect the phenotypic variation of the surrounding environment, or focus on rare phenotypes. The famous paintings "The Dappled Horses of Pech-Merle," depicting spotted horses on the walls of a cave in Pech-Merle, France, date back ~25,000 y, but the coat pattern portrayed in these paintings is remarkably similar to a pattern known as "leopard" in modern horses. We have genotyped nine coat-color loci in 31 predomestic horses from Siberia, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Iberian Peninsula. Eighteen horses had bay coat color, seven were black, and six shared an allele associated with the leopard complex spotting (LP), representing the only spotted phenotype that has been discovered in wild, predomestic horses thus far. LP was detected in four Pleistocene and two Copper Age samples from Western and Eastern Europe, respectively. In contrast, this phenotype was absent from predomestic Siberian horses. Thus, all horse color phenotypes that seem to be distinguishable in cave paintings have now been found to exist in prehistoric horse populations, suggesting that cave paintings of this species represent remarkably realistic depictions of the animals shown. This finding lends support to hypotheses arguing that cave paintings might have contained less of a symbolic or transcendental connotation than often assumed.
KW - Ancient DNA
KW - Franco-Cantabrian region
KW - Leopard complex spotting
KW - Single nucleotide polymorphism
KW - Transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M1
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=81755172922&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=81755172922&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1108982108
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1108982108
M3 - Article
C2 - 22065780
AN - SCOPUS:81755172922
VL - 108
SP - 18626
EP - 18630
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 46
ER -