Who is this 'Gay Caveman'?

When I first heard that a ‘gay caveman’ had been discovered, I immediately felt that something was wrong and that this name was probably misleading and very sensational.  And after a quick research on the Internet, I still believe my first impression was good. There are just so many things wrong with the appellation ‘gay caveman’.

The ‘gay caveman’ is a male skeleton found in Czech Republic dating from the late Stone Age. What is so special about him is that he was buried accordingly to rituals that are believed to be reserved to females. This individual was buried with his head pointing west, just like any other man during this period, but he was laying on his left side, which is normally seen in women burials. Also, he was buried without weapons, and had household jugs instead.

While it seems reasonable to think this man was treated differently, the evidences are too few to jump directly to the conclusion that he was gay, as lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova proposed it. Many other explanations are at least as valid as the homosexual hypothesis, for example the skeleton could have been wrongly identified as a male.

The 'gay caveman' as it was discovered (credit to dailymail.co.uk)

Furthermore, calling this individual a caveman is absolute nonsense, because this word is just wrong. A caveman is only a creation of popular culture, and the world should never be used in a scientific context.

The last point I want to make about this so-called ‘gay caveman’ is that even if he were homosexual, there is absolutely no reason to make a big deal out of this. Homosexuality is very common in the animal reign, and probably has been for a very long time. 

Here is a very sensational article about the discovery of the 'gay caveman': www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html

Source:

Daily Mail Reporter, "The oldest gay in the village: 5,000-year-old is 'outed' by the way he was buried", Daily Mail,last updated on April 8, 2011, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1374060/Gay-caveman-5-000-year-old-male-skeleton-outed-way-buried.html#ixzz2xUI1yU2>