She had dark skin.

The fact that this continues to surprise general audiences is itself informative about the gap between scientific understanding and popular conception.

The idea that ancient Europeans were light-skinned is deeply embedded in cultural narratives that have no empirical basis.

The actual evidence — from ancient DNA, consistently replicated across dozens of specimens — shows a very different picture.

Understanding Zlatý kůň’s dark complexion in this context is not a curiosity or an exception.

It is the norm for her time and place, consistent with every comparable ancient European specimen, and fully explained by the well-understood evolutionary history of human pigmentation.