The Gay Caveman

Czech archaeologists are still trying to make sense of an unordinary grave found a few years ago in Prague. The body was of a male belonging to the the Corded Ware culture in the Copper Age. Grave goods can tell us a lot about a culture and their way of dealing with death and identity, which is why this grave was so unusual. The man was buried with an eastern orientation and surrounded by domestic jugs, a burial commonly reserved for women. The most reasonable assumption provided so far is that this man was of a different sexual orientation. Of course, this claim has been very exciting for a generation and society that is currently fighting so hard for gay rights and for the realization that homosexuality has a biological basis. Of course I would love this case to prove without any doubt that sexual orientation was an acknowledged and accepted part of life that can be traced back to our earlier ancestors. However, the skeptical archaeologist in me needs more proof. One example of a female burial of a male body is not enough to prove that people living in 2,900 BC understood their gender, or that there was a third one. These claims have been blown out of proportion, particularly because the man was not a caveman at all, but a farmer from the Corded Ware Culture. The fact that he may or may not have been gay is not groundbreaking either, since homosexuality has been recorded in many ancient texts, as pointed out by John Hawks from the University of Wisconsin in the National Post article "Gay Caveman probably not Gay or a Caveman."