Posted on 02/12/2022 2:21:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
From gender changing priests to coin hoards owned by LGBT+ emperors - archaeological finds suggest that Wales' ancient history could be filled with LGBT+ life
When you think of ancient Wales, your mind probably doesn't jump to LGBT+ history.
However, a series of archaeological finds point to a very different look at our history. With evidence of gender-variant priests and emperors, our Welsh history could be filled with more LGBT+ figures than we initially thought.
These discoveries formed part of a series of talks exploring LGBT+ history and the evidence that can be found in Wales by independent researcher, Dr Alessandro Ceccarelli, to mark LGBT+ History Month.
Using items from National Museum Wales collections, Dr Ceccarelli - an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Cambridge but based in Cardiff - also described the little-known stories behind items celebrating LGBT+ figures found across Wales, including items from Caerleon, Llanvaches and the Vale of Glamorgan.
One find from Wales sheds light on the followers of Greek-Roman god Attis, which mythology remembers as the “consort” of the mother goddess and harvest goddess Cybele. Attis was known as both a “male” and “female” god in certain texts and had a religious following of “Galli” priests. They were known as “gender-variant” priests, sometimes depicted as neither man or woman. Some of their depictions represent them wearing clothes and ornaments often associated with femininity in Ancient Rome, wearing makeup and changing their hair colour.
The head of a sculpture found in Caerleon, near Newport, points to the existence of the cult of Attis, and potentially Galli priests in ancient Wales too. The sculpture depicts the face framed by curly hair and crowned by a cone-shaped cap.
Dr Ceccarelli said: “Archaeology can tell us about sexual orientations and gender identities in ancient Wales - and further afield - and about experiences that are still unexplored. It is not just modern history that can tell us about the lives and experiences of LGBT+ people.
“Archaeological evidence allows us to travel back in time for thousands of years, rediscovering ancient, diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. However, it is not an easy journey, as it is often really fragmented.
“But where it exists, it really shines a light on the diverse stories of people who lived in ancient societies, and would sound very familiar to those who identify as LGBT+ today.
“But similar statues, altars to Cybele, and evidence for their cults were not exclusive of Wales, as they were also found across the UK. For instance, archaeological evidence of this cult was found in Chesters Roman Fort and Corbridge, on Hadrian’s Wall, and in Catterick in North Yorkshire.
"So we can see that there was relatively widespread knowledge of individuals with diverse gender identities and expressions in Wales and Britain at least as old as the early centuries CE. It is a notion of gender that many modern people would now relate with transgender and non-binary.”
A hoard of more than 300 coins was found in Sully Moors in the Vale of Glamorgan in the late 19th Century, which shows Emperor Elagabalus. Elagabalus was reported to be sometimes referred to as a man, but historians also wrote that they identified as, and asked to be regarded as, a woman. They used to shave their body hair, wear make-up and wigs, and rejected being called a lord. Other evidence suggests that they asked physicians to change their body, promising them a lot of money to do so. Some details about a relationship with a charioteer called Hierocles are available, and a potential marriage to him.
"These archaeological finds give us a glimpse into untold LGBTQ+ stories and histories that are little-known to people today,” Dr Ceccarelli said.
“History Month is an important reminder that LGBTQ+ people have always existed and that their stories need to be told as much as everyone else’s”.
What horror. Poor children. Poor child.
The “divine androgyne” thing has been a part of pagan mythology forever.
Nothing to do with lbgtqmouse despite how badly they want it to.
Zeus got his kinky kicks from turning into a swan and boinking Leda.
Pretty sure that was not real, either.
/sick of this deranged, perverse crap
Baphomet was just crazy made up crap, too.
Do not google Subincision, ritual or otherwise.
People are insane.
Of course fudge-packing and cork soaking go way back. I mean, Satan has been on this planet for a long time.
In a culture where a man can have multiple wives, many men would never get a wife. A parent might decide as a eunuch my son can get a job and care for me in my old age. Eunuchs could work in large households with women, whereas a poor man might never get a wife or a job.
Some people -- and cultures -- are wildly insane.
A most interesting point. Given the demographic mess of Communist China's "one-child policy" which carried on for decades, there are tens of millions males who cannot be matched with females.
Many cultures and many ideologies of the world have a long way to go before they can be fully considered 'civilized.'
Yes faggotry has been around for ages. I heard that Robinson Caruso was not shipwrecked but abandoned on a remote island for shipboard faggotry.
For those interested in this line of revisionist history, here is a link to Dr. Allesandro Ceccarelli’s blog.
https://alessandroceccarelli.com/category/blog/
It’s pretty clear in reading it that he’s had an axe to grind for quite a while.
Yup.
/not mentioning the Gilligan’s Island thing
Yeah right - defend a misbegotten culture of horrors. What I experienced then was just a long list of terror. You obviously know absolutely nothing about Islamic cultures other than what your imagination conjures.
And defending castration, without even the benefit of anesthetic, on a young male child is beyond disgusting.
If karma is real, and we do get reborn - it will be your turn to be born within such a culture as a male child castrated without anesthetic so you can pleasure old men (the job of an eunuch) while your parents eat.
Castration is banned in Muslim lands. Eunuch slaves were castrated before arrival. There would not be a building marked “castration”, even if the practice were carried out. Castorium is not a word. The word castratorium appears in one article online referencing the “castratoriums of Iberia.” It might be that author’s coinage.
OTOH, mutilating little girls is permitted. So if the building had a sign, the victim was a girl.
Castration is banned in Muslim lands.
—
Glad you know what is what in “muslim lands” because it will come as a shock to Moroccans, Turks and many others. Regardless of the spelling of the word, it was in French 50 years ago, so I could be a little off on the spelling.
Well there is or was such a building with such a citation on it. So I guess you are trying to say I made it up. Next you’ll want a link, a source citation. Just buzz off to what ever unpleasant place you crawled out from under.
Buzz off. You are just a defender of Islam and its practices without ever having lived in a muslim country obviously.
Yup,
They can’t Think Straight!
Perhaps “Circoncision?”
So it's said, but we'll never know what the reality was.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.