The horse is one of the most popular personages of the Palaeolithic art. The
bison, the mammoth and the horse make the majority in the animal repertroire
of the cave paintings. There are 36 equids recognized in the Cosquer cave;
all of them attributed to the species of the horse. Unlike the modern
horse, the wild one was undersized, short-headed and more massive. Its hair
was thicker to survive in the cold climate of the Ice Age.
There are many bones of the wild horse on Palaeolithic sites. The horse
hunting was obviously less dangerous than the bull hunting and so more
preferable. Edouard Piette considered that on some works of art he could
make out harnesses or leads. It allowed him to put forward the idea that
the horse had been domesticated during the Upper Palaeolithic. Henri Breuil
and Emile Cartailhac had demolished that idea but a few years ago it was
taken up by Paul Bahn, basing on the particular pattern of teeth wear of
Palaeolithic horses. But the most reliable information concerning the horse
domestication is still dated to the later period - the Aeneolithic.
|
