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Sometimes a cave is just a cave.
Posted on 07/25/2005 8:13:47 AM PDT by traumer
A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say.
The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.
The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone.
Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.
"In addition to being a symbolic representation of male genitalia, it was also at times used for knapping flints," explained Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University.
"There are some areas where it has some very typical scars from that," he told the BBC News website.
Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and etched rings around one end mean there can be little doubt as to its symbolic nature.
The Hohle Fels bird
Enlarge Image "It's highly polished; it's clearly recognisable," said Professor Conard.
The Tübingen team working Hohle Fels already had 13 fractured parts of the phallus in storage, but it was only with the discovery of a 14th fragment last year that they were able finally to work out the "jigsaw".
The different stone sections were all recovered from a well-dated ash layer in the cave complex associated with the activities of modern humans (not their pre-historic "cousins", the Neanderthals).
The dig site is one of the most remarkable in central Europe. Hohle Fels stands more than 500m above sea level in the Ach River Valley and has produced thousands of Upper Palaeolithic artefacts.
Venus of Willendorf, BBC Female forms, such as the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf are more common Some have been truly exquisite in their sophistication and detail, such as a 30,000-year-old avian figurine crafted from mammoth ivory. It is believed to be one of the earliest representations of a bird in the archaeological record.
There are other stone objects known to science that are obviously phallic symbols and are slightly older - from France and Morocco, of particular note. But to have any representation of male genitalia from this time period is highly unusual.
"Female representations with highly accentuated sexual attributes are very well documented at many sites, but male representations are very, very rare," explained Professor Conard.
Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovations after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.
The Hohle Fels phallus will go on show at Blaubeuren prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art - Clearly Male.
"What's a phallus??"
Apparently it's something as hard as a rock.
and ancient. ;o)
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Sometimes a cave is just a cave.
I never heard the term before!
Looks like it could be anything....maybe just some lonely archelogists with a vivid imagination.
"It was used by an early Democrat who carried it around as a form of ID"
You mean a Streisand relic?
I've always wondered why it was called the Stone Age.
That is exactly what I was going to say when I was preparing a post to theBigB, Martin_fierro, and I kept thinking, what is the name of that guy whose screen name starts with a p, and he's always on these types of threads, LOL!
Now I'll just sit back with a cup of coffee for this thread. :)
Looks like a rolling pin to me.
An ancient tool as hard as a rock. Now that's one for the record books. :)
oh boy....
PHALLUS 1. a. An image of the male generative organ, symbolizing the generative power in nature, venerated in various religious systems; spec. that carried in solemn procession in the Dionysiac festivals in ancient Greece. In later times commonly worn as an amulet or protection against the evil eye.
b. The male generative organ, often in the context of its symbolical significance; in psychoanalysis, in the context of the pre-genital phase of sexual development.
"It's highly polished; it's clearly recognisable," said Professor Conard.
So "polishing the cane" goes back a long way......
Something along the line of a dickfore.
I wonder if anybody ever carried it in their front pocket just so the ladies could say: "Hello big boy. Is that giant stone phallus in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
Must have been an Architect.
Ping
14 pieces reminded me of this:
Isis took the wooden chest back to Egypt and hid it in a secret place. Then she returned to her son in Buto. One day Set, while out hunting by moonlight, discovered the chest, opened it, and cut Osiris' body into 14 pieces, which he scattered throughout the land. The crocodiles would not touch the pieces of Osiris, as they feared Isis. Isis, in a boat made of papyrus reeds, searched the land, and buried each piece of Osiris, and a temple was built by men at each place where a piece of Osiris was buried. And thirteen different cities claimed to be the burial place of Osiris. She finds all pieces except Phallus for which she makes a substitute, and post-mortal son of Osiris, Horus ('the younger'), was born. This one piece had been eaten by a fish in the Nile, which has been accursed ever since. But Osiris entered the Duat, the netherworld, and he rules as its good and just king.
LOL! :)
I must have fallen off the darn turnip truck recently. This is a new one on 'ol pissant.
BTW, I'm guessing this thread has a high probability of getting pulled. ;o)
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