Friday 8 April 2011

Occam's razor

A Czech archaeologist claims to have unearthed the tomb of the oldest "gay" caveman. It's only 5000 years old, so it's scarcely a caveman, but we'll blame the "caveman" bit on the press.  Miss Kamila Remisova Vesinova, the archaeologist in charge, bases her claim on her observation that she'd found a male body surrounded with female grave goods.  From this, she concluded that "he" was a bit light in the loafers.

I'm not surprised.  I got into archaeology 35 years ago and a day doesn't go by when I don't see wooly thinking poured out by the bale–especially by those who don't have my training in palaeopatholgy.  I'll pass over the laundry list of alternative explanations (there are many and more likely) for the simplest one.  The report is painfully incomplete.  Given that we're told nothing about the skeleton (if one survived), its condition, or the method of sexing, I'd say that Miss Vesinoca either had an an incomplete skeleton, one in very poor condition, or her methods were less than exhaustive and she got the sex wrong.

"Third gender" (I think they mean "sex") my eye.

2 comments:

eon said...

I'll believe it when I see the pelvic girdle dimensions and proportions.

(Old crime lab tech speaking here.)

cheers

eon

jayessell said...

Maybe each of his five wives put in their most cherished possession.