The male body – said to date back to between 2900-2500BC – was discovered buried in a way normally reserved only for women of the Corded Ware culture in the Copper Age. The skeleton was found in a Prague suburb in the Czech Republic with its head pointing eastwards and surrounded by domestic jugs, rituals only previously seen in female graves.
"From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake," said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova. "Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transsexual," she added.
According to Corded Ware culture which began in the late Stone Age and culminated in the Bronze Age, men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their heads pointing towards the west, and women on their left sides with their heads pointing towards the east...
She said that archeologists had uncovered an earlier case dating from the Mesolithic period where a female warrior was buried as a man.
07 April 2011
Evidence for homosexuality in early man
As reported by The Telegraph, the person's gender can be inferred from evidence in the funerary arrangements:
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Interesting claim but this is nothing new within archaeology and certainly not unexpected. Burial rights and gender attribution cannot be assumed purely on the basis of material culture associated with the deceased; confident analysis of the skeletal evidence in regards to sexual traits, such as pelvis and mastoid process must be taken into consideration. From a socialogical point of view we must careful not to impress our modern concepts of gender or sexuality onto past societies. Many cultures, both past and present, do not have clear cut definitions of male and female, rather it is better to imagine gender as a spectrum within which an individual experiences and expresses their given identity. This can fluctuate throughout an individuals lifetime. That homosexuality, as we would understand it, existed in the past prior to any historical period is almost a certainty. To suggest a persons sexual orientation through material culture in relation to their physical remains, even when one considers the various aspects of body placement (including a comparative study of conteporay burial rites, which may or may not be reflective of a society as a whole), is tricky business.
ReplyDeleteFrom a pedantic point of view the term "caveman" is a misnomer given that 5000 years ago urban cultures were flurishing throughout Asia and the Mediterranean and the advent of bronze was starting to play an important role in complex societies.
Your last point is well taken; I've modified the post title accordingly.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. So she killed her husband and had him burried in her place so that she could abscond with her new love. Nothing new here :-)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't come up with a decent 'rolling over in his grave' joke
ReplyDeleteThere is no evidence whatsoever for sexual orientation, at most there's some interesting info about gender there, as Rexybaby said.
ReplyDeleteClassifying this skeleton as 'gay' is just a little weird.
It's more likely that the baody was of a transgendered person (or of no gender) or their rituals weren't as specific as we once believed. The claim that he/she was gay is just general individuals attempting to reach conclusions on a subject they know little about.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was intended as an insult to both the man and his family?
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things wrong with this "discovery" and its skewed outcome and subsequent opinions. Plus, who gives a shit. Homosexuality has existed for as long as humans and animals have. Period. It's called, umm...part of NATURE and its awesome diversity.
ReplyDelete