World's First 'Gay' Caveman

Archaeologists who uncovered this 5,000-year-old man in the Czech Republic believe the Stone Age-era skeleton is the first-ever gay caveman discovered. How come? Because of the way he was buried. And I'm not talking about the way it looks like he's bent over ready to receive.

During that period [between 2900 and 2500 BC], men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with the head pointing towards the west; women on their left side with the head facing east. In this case, the man was on his left side with his head facing west. Another clue is that men tended to be interred with weapons, hammers and flint knives as well as several portions of food and drink to accompany them to the other side. Women would be buried with necklaces made from teeth, pets, and copper earrings, as well as domestic jugs and an egg-shaped pot placed near the feet. The ‘gay caveman’ was buried with household jugs, and no weapons.

Except wouldn't burying the dead man in the ritual of a woman actually make him not gay, but trans? Or maybe he was actually intersex, but lived as a woman? Ah right. But the Daily Mail went another direction.

Archaeologists do not think it was a mistake or coincidence given the importance attached to funerals during the period, known as the Corded Ware era because of the pottery it produced. 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 researcher Kamila Remisova Vesinova. ‘Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transvestite. What we see here does not add up to traditional Corded Ware cultural norms.’

Source

I'm loathe to believe anything the Daily Fail put in their news.

Still, it's an interesting cultural anomaly from the standard burial rites.

This would be extremely interesting if true. Of course it would only become an "accepted" interpretation of a site so long as others in the field agree with the interpretation of the burial site. Time will tell.

My only question would be: Does this mean most cavemen were more enlightened about sexual orientation then the bigots are today? They allowed this guy to grow to adluthood and gave him full burial rights according to custom.

I wonder if the caveman westboro baptists protested his funeral.

I often say the more advanced we become the more ignorant we become :)

However if this is proven to be a fact perhaps it will have an impact on how we are viewed..

I'm trying to think of the first culture that reviled gays.

I don't recall the mention of it in Chinese history, but it's possible that Mao's regime erased mention of anything objectionable from the history books. (Mao was a bit of a nut job. Believed that he was the smartest, most well educated man in the world and imprisoned or executed anyone with a higher education than himself.)

I never really got into Egyptian cultural history, but I do remember that other cultures of that era (Pre-christian Rome and Greece) were very accepting of gays (Emperor Hadrianus of Rome, for example, was gay).

I'd be curious to know the answer to that question.

Quote by davidbehrns

I wonder if the [strike]caveman[/strike] westboro baptists protested his funeral.

Edited for redundancy.

Quote by Angelsilhouette

I'm trying to think of the first culture that reviled gays.

I don't recall the mention of it in Chinese history, but it's possible that Mao's regime erased mention of anything objectionable from the history books. (Mao was a bit of a nut job. Believed that he was the smartest, most well educated man in the world and imprisoned or executed anyone with a higher education than himself.)

I never really got into Egyptian cultural history, but I do remember that other cultures of that era (Pre-christian Rome and Greece) were very accepting of gays (Emperor Hadrianus of Rome, for example, was gay).

I'd be curious to know the answer to that question.

I'm not sure about non-European cultures, but the earliest anti-homosexual laws were based by Constantine at around 400 BC during the decline or end of the Roman Empire.

Living in New Mexico I know that many Native American tribes held gays placed gays in high status,for many years.... until the Spanish came.

http://ne2ss.typepad.com/northeast_twospirit_socie/2006/08/homosexuality_a.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Spirit

Well this is what I get for not reading enough... Wikipedia to the rescue. :3

The first laws barring consensual non-monetised homosexuality in China were in the Qing (pronounced Ching) Dynasty. It was at this time that much mixing with the west imported not only sciences and philosophy but homophobia.

Is it me, or has it been the western monotheistic religion(s) that has done all of the spreading of homophobia?

Pretty much yea, alot of misreading of the bible has led to much pain and misery.

there were also the samurai in japan, buddhist monks. and some emperers it wasn't untill the west had an influance that homosexuality was baned. From what I remember homosexuality in most shamanistic religions was celebrated

Yeah it pretty much was the onset of Christianity that led to homosexuality being viewed in such a negative light for the last two millenia. In most ancient cultures it was considered perfectly acceptable.

there was an update on this:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/04/10/czech.republic.unusual.burial/index.html