Favoritos de othmanebe

A rare polychrome in the Agter-Pakhuis. Most of the 2000 - 8000 year old rock art in the area is monochrome.
Eland were often painted without horns. We don't know why.
Tony Rebelo: "Any chance that they made the horns out of wood and stuck them on? 3D-like?"
Me: "A bizarre thought! Maybe they used acacia thorns [oops! make that sumthin' else thorns] - but of course, we'll never know! They did sometimes put in the horns, but in the WCape hornless animals are more common in the rock art. Maybe the local eland were less horny in those days?"
Rebelo: "Both sexes are horny: prominently so. Seems bizare to have them hornless. Hornless explanations sound hollow. Either they were there in the paintings and have washed off, or they were somehow else included. Perhaps look below for some hoof, or horn or wooden carvings.
The care taken with drawing esp. Eland, does not make sense to have such an important and key feature missing. It must be us missing something significant!"

Me: "Ask the archaeologists. They dunno. Me neither."

It is remotely possible that the horns were painted in a fugitive colour, ie one that has faded away.