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July 25, 2005
Life-sized and 28,000 Years Old
The BBC reports the discovery and reassembly of a life-sized phallus some 28,000 years old.
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.
And then they go on to perverse speculation,
Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.
But cooler heads prevail,
"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.
I can't help but wonder if it was always used for knapping flints and repeated knapping gave it its distinctive shape. Anyway, you can judge for yourself. A picture, not quite life sized (but with a link to one that is), accompanies the article.
Posted by Duane Smith at July 25, 2005 1:54 PM | Read more on Paleoanthropology |
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