And the broader methodological framework demonstrated in the 2026 Zlatý kůň study — comparing multiple methods formally, using geometric morphometrics to quantify differences, being explicit about uncertainty — is likely to influence how future reconstruction studies are designed and communicated.

The paper has made a methodological argument that, if it is taken seriously by the field, will change how reconstructions are presented: with more transparency about method, more acknowledgment of uncertainty, and more willingness to show multiple answers rather than one.

None of this will produce a photograph of Zlatý kůň.

None of it will recover her name, her language, her relationships, or the specific facts of her individual life.

The limits of what is knowable about any individual from the deep past are real and permanent.