Pigs and humans were linked before this animal developed its domestic characteristics. In its wild boar form, it was hunted, respected, and even admired by various prehistoric, protohistoric, and ancient societies and civilizations, and its image was used as a magical artefact, a prestigious ornament, a sacred symbol, or a funerary emblem. Quite different was the case with the common pig, which was gastronomically exalted and repudiated, but whose representation went almost unnoticed until the High Middle Ages. It was from this period onwards that both subspecies coexisted in art in a more obvious way, thanks to their iconographic characterization in treatises on venison, agricultural calendars, and heraldry.