frualeydis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
frualeydis) wrote2008-05-20 05:11 pm
frualeydis) wrote2008-05-20 05:11 pm
Neolithic gays
In this photo you see the identical grave goods of two men buried together in what is now Denmark in the neolithic age.
According to Sunniva, one of the participants of the NESAT conference, these burials are not uncommon (I have no idea, I'm not an archaeologist). The accompanying text says that special brotherhoods were formed among the men and that these two apparently were members of one of those. Well, that may be the case, but as Sunniva pointed out: when a man and a woman are buried together they are always interpreted as lovers/married, so why can't it be so when it's two men? Just because western societies after the Greeks have seen same-sex sexual relationships as unnatural doesn't mean that that was the opinion in the neolithic age. Maybe they were lovers, maybe men and women buried together belong to the same religious or social organizations and wouldn't dream of being a romantic couple?
Since I'm a romantic I prefer thinking of both types of graves as couples' graves, however.
According to Sunniva, one of the participants of the NESAT conference, these burials are not uncommon (I have no idea, I'm not an archaeologist). The accompanying text says that special brotherhoods were formed among the men and that these two apparently were members of one of those. Well, that may be the case, but as Sunniva pointed out: when a man and a woman are buried together they are always interpreted as lovers/married, so why can't it be so when it's two men? Just because western societies after the Greeks have seen same-sex sexual relationships as unnatural doesn't mean that that was the opinion in the neolithic age. Maybe they were lovers, maybe men and women buried together belong to the same religious or social organizations and wouldn't dream of being a romantic couple?
Since I'm a romantic I prefer thinking of both types of graves as couples' graves, however.
no subject
I didn't even saw these grave goods. My feet were already aching so much due to the new but oh so pretty shoes, that I only looked the most obvious stuff in the exhibition (namely the textiles) and just skimmed through everything else.