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.
I was being series, for a change. ;o)
Cro Magnon's idea of wishful thinking.
These male bonding rituals confuse me so.
When are you ever? Check FReepmail.
WISHBONE !
Guess you learned something new today, pissant. I am a rock lover and normally I collect "heart" rocks (rocks in the shape of hearts). When our oldest son was a little boy he found one and gave it to me. That started a family tradition of finding heart rocks.
Well, a few years ago I found a rock that was shaped like a phallus. I display it proudly in my rock garden right next to the pussy willows. LOL
Yep...my thoughts exactly. It seems the "experts" may need to look past their own zippers to determine what this tool could be....other than a phallus.
Wow, an early dildo. (LOL!)
LOL. Good converation piece, I'm sure! ;o)
JRBC, Fierce and I are both Engineers.
It's probably only a few centuries old, a fragment stolen from a greek god statue as a joke. Trust the "old earth" goofballs to add
thousands of years of age to everything they find.
Wonder what they used for lubricant back then - probably mammoth fat.
Architects don't have phalusses. They are all either female or eunuchs. The ones that are packing are gay. So I'm told.
OH, and they all smoke too much dope.
Except, of course, our OFST but R-Q-TEK86. I don't know for sure about him, but he seems relatively normal, for a flaky-tect.
If this is the object in question, this is quite a leap. As someone else pointed out, circumcision didn't exist, thus the "ring" could be anything. This appears to be more wishful thinking from a sex-gen that seeks to justify their perversions.
Is it me or has that thing been scratched and gnawed on?
Dilligaf. Thick skin. You can't hurt me.
The Romans prefered marble to mammoth ivory. The ivory stayed on backorder most of the time.
I hate to tell you what it looks like. (old joke)
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