'Gay Caveman' Found By Archaeologists Near Prague

A team of Czech archaeologists claim to have unearthed the remains of an early gay man from around 2900-2500 B.C. outside Prague.

According to the Telegraph, the "gay caveman" was found buried in a way normally reserved only for women during the Copper Age. The man had been interred on his left side with his head facing east, with no weapons and household jugs -- almost always reserved for women in the region during that time -- placed at his feet. Traditionally, men were buried with weapons, hammers and flint knives, and their bodies were positioned on their right side with their heads facing west.

"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," lead researcher Kamila Remisova Vesinova said. "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."

Archaeologist Katerina Semradova told reporters that the "third gender" discovery mirrored an earlier case, in which a female warrior dating from the Mesolithic period was found to have been buried as a man. In addition, she noted Siberian shamans, or latter-day witch doctors, were buried in a similar fashion to the "gay caveman," but usually with richer funeral accessories to depict a higher social status, the Daily Mail is reporting.

"But this later discovery was neither of those, leading us to believe the man was probably homosexual or transsexual," Semeradova is also quoted by the Telegraph as saying.

Comments

[Westbram]

05:15 PM on 04/16/2011

WOW! I never realized that the comments would be better than the HUMOR article they are referencing. You people need to get real, this is a HUMOR reference/reporting site, not to be taken seriously. At least, I have yet to see a fully factual, non humorous in some way , article ever posted on this site.

[Josef Horacek]

07:55 PM on 04/15/2011

I must agree with many of the other commenters: gay and transvestite are not the same thing. Shame on you HuffPost.

[David Donnelly]

12:40 PM on 04/13/2011

So, where's the evidence that this male was attracted to other males...? The article even says "Traditionally, men were buried with weapons, hammers, and flint knives..." Obviously this wasn't a traditional burial.

[gman0987654]

11:16 AM on 04/13/2011

androgen insensitivity syndrome?

[mamacat]

04:52 AM on 04/12/2011

Behaving like a woman in some ways does mean that he was gay. An accomplished warrior could have been a practicing homosexual, while a transvestite is often a practicing heterosexual.

In other words, his being buried like a woman could mean something else, such as the way he behaved outside the bedroom. To jump to the conclusion that he was a practicing homosexual, based on how he was buried, seems premature.

[FTracy3]

03:59 PM on 04/12/2011

Why did the early homosexuals need to be practicing so often? If sex is like piano lessons it can't be all that much fun.

[redsquirell]

01:29 AM on 04/12/2011

...guess I was hoping for a cave painting...I can see the homophobes already at their future grave-sites with the compass out.

[goodog]

12:13 AM on 04/12/2011

"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," lead researcher Kamila Remisova Vesinova said.

That's a ludicrous statement. Mistakes get made all the time in the most serious circumstances.

The wrong leg gets amputated, and living people have been declared dead. Supposing that prehistoric people were so intently sophisticated that mistakes were NEVER, ever made is preposterous on its face, and it's a degradation of scientific integrity to base your conclusion on such a flimsy idea.

[Sean Laney]

08:12 AM on 04/12/2011

Yes, because mistakes often involve setting up elaborate positioning with props that just happens to not only be wrong, but also to match the positioning that is used for the opposite gender.

This isn't an amputated leg, bub. Your analogy is horrible.

[goodog]

01:13 PM on 04/12/2011

A hermaphroditic member of the community may have been deemed more female than male by the bereaved, despite what skeletal remains imply.

There are a number of other reasons this may have happened beside sexual orientation determining the gender in the eyes of the bereaved.

The researchers themselves may have misidentify the gender. All kinds of mistakes get made, even in highly trained and formalized settings, and to argue that they don't is preposterous faith in human affairs.

This is a study in possibilities, not absolutes.

[Rex Devious]

11:26 PM on 04/11/2011

I guess this'd be surprising if homosexuality was not already known to be an integral part of *any* mammalian species. Or maybe it's just surprising that our generation is still struggling to be as accepting of reality as cavemen were.

[Telemachus]

12:51 PM on 04/12/2011

"So easy, a caveman can do it."

[leomoore]

01:07 AM on 04/13/2011

As a gay man, I burst out laughing when I read this. Such an obvious joke that no one else seemed to think of it. Good on ya.

[icarus85]

11:08 PM on 04/11/2011

he actually preferred to be called fabulous, not gay

seriously though. it raises the question, can a person be 'gay' if there isn't even a definition or understanding of 'gay' at the time he lived. perhaps this person was transgender, that doesn't make him gay

[DrakeUnlimited]

10:29 PM on 04/11/2011

This is soo gay...

[YourNewNeighbor]

10:10 PM on 04/11/2011

The most interesting finds were the petrified Bette Midler records.

[Max Shaw]

05:36 PM on 04/11/2011

It wasnt a gay caveman..it was Khloe Kardashian's: Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandmother...

[Southern Cali Native84]

06:35 PM on 04/11/2011

L O L !!!!

[LiberalScoop]

11:00 PM on 04/11/2011

That Kloe is one mannish female child, ain't she?

[bdunlap52]

05:21 PM on 04/11/2011

Well, I expect the GLBT community to come out in force against these scientists for assuming that this man was gay simply because he was buried with jugs and in the manner of women. Don't we hear everyday that being gay has nothing to do with fitting into stereotypes of "woman vs. man"? That gay men in the military will be just as "manly" as the straight guys in the military? I guess if this is true, even cavemen knew that gays should not be on the front lines. Let them in the military, just make them cooks.

[goodog]

11:39 PM on 04/11/2011

It's the writer who has assumed he was gay. If you read closely, though, the scientists propose a few options.

[bdunlap52]

11:53 PM on 04/11/2011

Actually, if you read closely, it's the lead researcher who says that due to the positioning of the body, he was most likely gay or transvestite....

"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," lead researcher Kamila Remisova Vesinova said. "Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transvestite."

The writer did not assume anything. The scientist does.

[Stageman]

04:21 PM on 04/11/2011

Jugs make good weapons. Ask any woman.

[Stageman]

04:13 PM on 04/11/2011

He may have been a child molester, and forced to be a eunuch. Living out his life with no testosterone, baking cookies for the hunters.

[YourNewNeighbor]

10:10 PM on 04/11/2011

That's a whole other movie.