Chinese and German archaeologists believe they have found images of what appears to be Arabian horses on some 2,000-year old cliff paintings in the Yinshan Mountains of North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
Over 10,000 ancient cliff paintings have been found in the Yinshan Mountains.
Wu Jiacai, director of the North China Institute of Cliff Paintings, said that images of Arabian horses have been found in a dozen cliff paintings, which also contain images of other animals and humans.
Those in Yinshan are believed to be the earliest found to date.
The pictures, painted around 210 BC, depict the horses wearing armor, leather saddles and stirrups.
It was a period of war between the nomadic Huns were and the Donghu, a nomadic tribe from North China.
Experts said the pictures suggest that Huns had trade links with people in western Asia and northern Africa at that time.
Earlier archeological excavations in Erdos, Inner Mongolia, unearthed bronze and pottery figurines of Arabian horses.