First Gay Caveman?

            As of April last year there have been several reports in different newspapers around the globe about "the first homosexual caveman found." According to the article in the UK Telegraph "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."

My initial reaction to the title was intrigue, as I hadn't really ever heard anything on the subject matter. After reading though several articles on the topic, I have come up with mixed emotions. The evidence presented by head archaeologist, Kamila Remisova, is quite believable as well as all of the information used in the argument validating that this being was a homosexual. One concern that I have with the article is the fact that it was flogged so fast on a global scale. Since the article was published so widely on a global scale as well as so rapidly, it makes me question the quality and bias of the article.

Having discussed the Corded Ware phase a lot in class, the assumptions made about this male seem to be rational. The fact the inhumation was oriented like that of a typical woman of the era makes sense that the archaeologists would assume that the person was a homosexual or transgender. I am quite curious as to this new information and would love to further research this very bold and affluent role that is very present in modern societies all the way back in history to the first emergences of the homosexual. Thinking about this controversial topic does also bring up many other questions but there are only so many judgments and conclusions that can be made about these things without being exposed to the culture. Since we have not been exposed to the social aspects of the society we can only guess as to the gendering of the man, but in actuality, who knows! For all we know, this burial could have been the result of miscommunication between members of the society at the time, or even an act of humiliation or punishment. As mentioned before with my concern of bias of this article, it is not the evidence that forces me to think that it could be bias, but the fact that homosexuality is so publicized in our existing society that it is possible the initial information from the anthropologists was mutated to cater to the taste of the media. The pictures below further support my thoughts as to the over glamorizing and glorifying of information.

This is what I think the media and general public thinks when they first hear of the article: 

When in actuality, this is what was really found: 

The Link to the article I focused on can be found through the following link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html

The websites the pictures were taken from:

http://comediansofchelsealately.tumblr.com/post/4760978933/shesjustbeingrachie-gay-caveman-3-follow-on

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/december-2011/article/archaeology-news-for-the-week-of-april-3rd