Hunting Horses

Hunting Horses

Wild horses roamed the Ice Age landscape of Europe tens of thousands of years ago. By around 40,000 years ago, our own species began settling in the region as well. How did the relationship between horses and people begin? No one knows precisely, but prehistoric evidence from western Europe tells part of the story.

In Ice Age Europe, people were predators and horses were prey. Early hunting weapons and horse remains found in the area show that long before humans rode horses or used them as beasts of burden, they hunted these animals for food.

Among the most intriguing sites illustrating the relationship between early hunters and horses is the Roche de Solutré, a large rock formation in France where thousands upon thousands of horse bones have been found, along with stone spear points and butchering tools.

Archaeologists think that generations of Ice Age hunters came to this spot to corner and kill horses over the course of more than 20,000 years. Based on the concentration of bones found at Solutré, researchers estimate that Ice Age people killed between 30,000 and 100,000 horses there.