The skull of Zlatý kůň has a post-discovery history of its own, separate from the scientific story of what it has revealed.

It has been housed, studied, stored, revisited, reanalyzed, and referenced across more than seven decades of scientific work.

Its institutional history reflects the broader history of Czech science across that period — from the postwar period through the communist era, the transition after 1989, and the integration of Czech science into European and global research networks.

The skull was found at a moment of major political and social transformation in Czechoslovakia.

The 1948 communist coup had occurred just two years before the discovery, and the country was in the early stages of establishing the scientific institutions and priorities of the new order.